Have you been Hacked ??? [Paranoid Mode] be informed of any incidents hence forth !!!

Were you aware of the your linkedin account had been compromised ??

Read This :- http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/over-100-million-linkedin-profiles-hacked-heres-a-quick-way-to-find-out-if-youre-one-of-them-317526.html

We keep registering to several services and use email id and password for registering for a service.

there have been several incidents wherein data has been compromised (some made public, some not)

Register for free service link given bellow :-

https://haveibeenpwned.com

If you like their service, please donate as you wish.

Conclusion :-

Check the authenticity of any website before registering, Please keep your data safe, Register for 2 factor authentication for email wherever possible.

Use separate passwords for registering for any service,
separate passwords for email.
separate passwords for banking.

In case you have too many passwords to manage, use a free or paid password management utility e.g. (PasswordSafe, KeePass) are some examples of free password utilities.

As a good practise, please change your passwords monthly.

Please share what tips/tricks to secure your passwords.. :)

Google / Postini enterprise support ?? Contact Google / Postini ??

Anyone looking for Google / Postin  Enterprise Support contact number ?

Here it is... but apparently you need to have a customer pin when your calling them.
 
This is one number that you will not find too easily :-

Google Enterprise Support Contact (US) : +1-877-355-5787

For Postini (Press option 1 and then option 2)

If you donot have a customer pin

For online portal help with Google Enterprise :-

http://www.google.com/enterprise/

For online portal help with Postini Support :-

https://support.google.com/postini/answer/87835?hl=en

Also checkout Postini help centre :-

https://support.google.com/postini/#topic=2717405


* Note : The phone number / options may change at any time. These instructions are provided without any Guarantee. Please use them at your own  risk

Error "0x80070057-00000000-00000000" while sending calender invites through Outlook Client

User complains he is receiving error  "0x80070057-00000000-00000000" when he sends out calender invites.

You should try 2 options

1) Uncheck "use cached exchange mode"

2) Download new copy of "Global Address list"

Note : If the user who the invite has been sent is not in the Global address list and within your personal contact list then you may avoid this step. (there is no harm in doing this step either ways)

Have you come across this error, how did you solve the issue please share your experience.

Exchange Powershell command to find all groups in your Microsoft Online Exchange 365.. !!!

click start -> start typing powershell ->

and run the Powershell Microsoft Online services module as administrator

Run the command "Get-MsolGroup --all > c:\msolgroup2.txt"

Breaking the code :

Get-msolgroup -all will get all the data to your screen and > will redirect it to a file.txt.

Do share with us know if you have a better way of getting this done.


Note : Please try the command at your own risk, the owner of this blog takes no responsibility for anything that may go wrong on your exchange server.

Check Email forwarding using Powershell !!!

Being a system admin is not only about the doing the Job but doing it efficiently.

This post will show you how to find out users who have email forwarding to to any person within the exchange server.

1) Open the exchange power shell.

2) Type the following command.

Get-Mailbox -Filter {ForwardingAddress -ne $null} | ft Name,ForwardingAddress,DeliverToMailboxAndForward -Autosize

Breaking the code :-

• Get-mailbox module :- is used to find out the information within the mailbox.
• Filter {ForwardingAddress -ne $null} :- filters the output with an forwarding emailaddress is not equal to $null (no empty)
•  ft Name,ForwardingAddress,DeliverToMailboxAndForward : again filter the output with only these columns (name, Forwarding address, deliver to mailbox and forward).
•  -Autosize : if your output is too big, the full output is not shown and items that are over a certain entry are not shown, to avoid this and to output all details we use -autosize
• you can also re-direct this output from the screen to a file using 'Export-CSV' parameter. 
• e.g.  Get-Mailbox -Filter {ForwardingAddress -ne $null} | ft Name,ForwardingAddress,DeliverToMailboxAndForward -Autosize | Export-CSV g:\Email_forwarding_output.csv

Note : Please try the command at your own risk, the owner of this blog takes no responsibility for anything that may go wrong on your exchange server.

Getting to know whats under the hood without taking a machine appart. (2 default tools, 1 3rd party free tool)

If you are a person who is fed up of opening a machine just to checking the Motherboard / RAM / Graphic card / Etc attached to it... this article is for you ....

There are 2 default options in Windows and i have also mentioned a free tool at the end of this post.

1) Check using DirectX

Start - > Run, type "dxdiag"

Short Forms... Secrets Finally Revealed.. !!!

I have read a lot of short forms and in IT we tend to use a lot of them. What exactly do they mean.?? 

here is the Secrets Finally Revealed..!!!

This post is not intended at offending anyone and is for knowledge only.. Please read at your own discretion.



IMO = In My Opinion
BTW = By The Way
GG = Good Game
BM & GM = Bad Manner and Good Manner
FU = Fuck You
FYI = For Your Information
AKA = Also Known As
LOL = Laugh Out Loud
ROLF = Roll Over Laughing
ROFL - Rolling on floor laughing
LMAO = Laugh My Ass Off :P

10 Important tools for a System Administrator (Free Tools) - Part1

Here are some tools that i have come across, that a system administrator would use on a daily basis to either work with or tools that will help solve some issue that will make our life a little more simpler. while these tools may help a system administrator they will never replace him as it helps us work more efficiently nothing more..  nothing less :P

1) Cleaning tool :

I'm sure you must have used this tool or seen someone talking about this one,  "Ccleaner" would be one of the most useful tools around to Cleanup all the junk on your machine. It clears Temp application files, Temp Internet files, etc.

It can also clean unwanted registry entries, Please  backup registry before performing the registry cleanup

Download Ccleaner

2) Uninstaller -

Tools that will help you remove that programe that has been irritating you but you could on remove it use with "Revo Uninstaller" or "Microsoft - Fix it"

Download Revo Uninstaller Free
Download Microsoft Fix it Install and Uninstall

3) Remote Connection - Team Viewer / Amy admin are the tools that are You may notice that  i have not mentioned RDC (that is only accessible within the domain/network)

Download Teamviewer
Download Ammyy

4) Telnet / SSH

Putty is widely used tool to login into Linux / Unix machines. If you would like to go command line, this is the tool for you.

Download Putty

5) VNC Server / VNC Viewer :

VNC is virtual network controller, this helps in monitoring / maintaining machines remotely. server needs to be installed on the machine you need access to and the viewer is used to connect to the

Download TightVNC

Microsoft Online Exchange 365 giving NDR issues ??

Are your using Microsoft exchange 365 online ? If the answer to that is yes.. Please read bellow.

Users facing have been informing IT support that they are getting Non-delivery-Report (NDR) for some e-mails that they have sent.

Babies Guide to working with directories Linux/Solaris

Here a a basic list of commands to help newbies to work with directories on Linux / Unix

1) How to create a folder

mkdir - this command will make/create a directory


e.g. bash# mkdir folder1


(this command will create a folder 

2) Removing a folder

rmdir - Remove/deletes a folder

e.g. bash# rmdir folder1

flags :
-r  Recursive (very dangerous if you don't know what your doing, i say it cuz of personal experience)
-f  Force (removes files that will not be able to be removed with the normal rmdir command)

these flags are to be used in between the after the rmdir e.g. bash# rmdir -r folder1 

Pluged in, Not charging .....!!! arrggggggg

Charger connected but battery status shows connected but not charging...

Is your laptop acting bitc*y and not charging at all, at this point you think your laptop battery is screw*d and you can't imagine how much is it gonna burn your pocket.

Please try these few steps of troubleshooting before burning a hole in your pocket.

Enabling second interface on the server without physically connecting the cable "Big Mistake"

Warning : Kids Please don't try this on any server without having physical connectivity to it,,, cuz this is a disaster waiting to happen.

This caution has been written after one such incident happened and it really was not fun to debug especially if someone from the team has done this and not informed anyone.

The server on which this was done unfortunately was the Exchange, DNS, and VPN server. After the second interface was enabled there was loss in VPN connectivity. Exchange was also giving problem's :(

Another Tragedy in the server room... :(

RadiSys Server alert :-

If you have a RadiSys server in your server room i have a small warning for you people, make sure that you have a room temperature monitoring application and make sure that there is a separate AC/Cooler installed in the server room as this is a disaster waiting to happen.

Last week we had our exchange server DOWN as the room temperature in the server room was too hot, Onsite team was quick to react and realized that it was the RadiSys that was creating all the heat and although we had a centralized AC which was cooling the Server room, the cooling was not enough and due to heat in  the server room the exchange server which was the closest just shut down the server as the temperature around it was too hot.

IT Gone BAD.. The UP's and DOWN's (A System Adminstrator's real nightmare)

There are a very few senario's in which IT infrastructure can get really messed up

You make sure you have all the right things in place so that your Domain server does not go down, But no matter how much you try and cry incidents do happen.

like Senario 1 :-

You have a domain controller machine with Exchange running to protect the machine you have connected a RAID card and attached 4 drives, so that even if 1 drive fails the other drive can take over. How can this server still fail ?

Ans - RAID card crashes

(due to the raid card crash, to your bad luck even the exchange databases get corrupt... and you keep crying why me ? )

1) The domain controller is the most important system in the network, hence it was raided with 4 drives (now how the hell would anyone expect a server with 4 raid drives ever hope the server would crash ?), Let me tell you how, to our bad luck the RAID card crashed, Server went down, exchange databases got corrupt, the only good part was that the exchange database was being backed up, but the weekly exchange was failing.... BAAP RE... now wht ?? Luckly we got the support contract renewed with symantec.. guided us to somehow recover the databases.

Senario 2 :-

Unable to logon to user account through RDP ? Make sure you have the right permissions

Are you trying to login through RDP and getting an error while logging into the system "you have not permiss to log on" if yes ? then here are the steps given below :-

1) Go to start -> "run"
2) Type "mstsc /console" without the quotes (the /console option acts as if you are having a console session)
3) Type the dns name/ip address of the computer you want to login to

Quick Dummies guide for Solaris/Unix/Linux

Quick Dummies guide for Solaris/Unix/Linux:-

Here are some quick commands for Solaris administrators :- (Most of these commands will work on Unix and Linux as well, this article is written for Solaris 8/9/10 servers, also note that all or most these commands will need root access, without which they may not work)

1) netstat :- it will give you the details of all ports that are on the system along with the port status

e.g. bash# netstat -as | grep 10000
(this will check status of port 10000)

Google to launch 1Gigabit broad band service in US

Google is trying to get into newer ventures, and this time its none other than Internet Service Provider Business, Google is planning to get together with Local and the state government to setup the fiber optic networks the experiment is to have between 50,000 and 500,000 people connected to have gigabit broadband connectivity.


The gigabit broadband connectivity seems to good to be true, as of now we are not sure about the business strategy as it seems ridiculous and unmatchable (may be they will make their money by selling more ads)

Software Raid for Windows 2008 Server

RAID1 is basically a mirror of the original disk.

In this article i will be using these terms :-

1) Original HDD -> The default Disk on which your server OS is currently on.

2) Clone HDD -> Cloned from the original Drive

3) New Drive -> the one you have decided to make a raid drive.

Pre-Requisites :-

3 drives of equal size (i am using 160GB x 3 drives)

make a copy of your original hard drive to another drive which we will call the "Clone HDD", you can use
 many tools to clone your drive like bartpe, easeus disk copy, etc.

after creating a clone HDD from the original drive, remove the Original drive and only use it as a backup (if things get screwed up and you don't have a backup... :D ... you can rely on the original HDD to save your self.)

You have to convert the Clone HDD into dynamic disk to. right click on disk and select "Convert Disk to Dynamic"

Step by step installation screens of RAID1 after completing the pre-requisites 

Troubleshooting Server/Client Side error's for wsus server 2003/2008

Basic WSUS 3.0 SP1 troubleshooting

When i check the log under c:\WINDOWS\WindowsUpdate.log i get the following error "Error 0x80072efd occurred while downloading update; notifying dependent calls"

• Solution to this is as follows

• go to RUN and type "gpedit.msc" on the client PC and check if server name/IP is correct or not.
• If you have installed a new Anti-virus/Firewall, check if it has blocked any ports (which may have blocked the updates)
• Clear the BITS queue
  
  • Click on start -> run
  • Type "services.msc"
  • Select "Background Intelligent transfer service", then restart this service. (stop and start resolved my problem)
• Run the ClientDiag tool. you can download it from http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/7/6/976d1084-d2fd-45a1-8c27-a467c768d8ef/WSUS%20Client%20Diagnostic%20Tool.EXE

installing another WSUS Server ?

Enabling Clients to get updates from the local server Using Group Policies on 2003/2008 Server

Note :- for these policies to take effect the client has to be restarted. Create a separate policy for WSUS, DO NOT use the Default Policies
1) Create a new GPO

[Do not edit the default Domain Controller Policy or Default Domain Policy]

2) Edit the newly created GPO