Cannot Connect to Domain

I encountered a problem with a Windows XP Professional system no longer being able to authenticate with the domain controller after I replaced the disk drive in the system and restored the system from a backup. Whenever the user tried logging into the domain or I tried logging in as the domain administrator, the following message appeared:

Logon Message

Windows cannot connect to the domain, either because the domain controller is down or otherwise unavailable, or because your computer account was not found. Please try again later. If this message continues to appear, contact your system administrator for assistance.  OK

The problem went away on its own, but only for a couple of days, then recurred. I took the system out of the domain and put it in a workgroup, rebooted, then put it back in the domain to correct the problem. Apparently there are a variety of causes for such a problem.

[ More Info ]

[/os/windows/domain] permanent link

Who Is Linking to My Site?

If you want to find what links to your site exist on the web, some search engines provide a linkdomain operator. For instance, if I wanted to find links to support.moonpoint.com , I could search using linkdomain:support.moonpoint.com to find out who else is linking to my site.

Linkdomain Operator Supported

MSN Search
AltaVista
AlltheWeb

Linkdomain Operator Not Supported

Google
AOL Search
Ask.com
Gigablast
LookSmart

With MSN Search you can also use "links to", e.g. links to support.moonpoint.com. See Search Builder and advanced search options for other MSN Search operators.

Google does not provide a linkdomain operator, but I could search on " support.moonpoint.com" to find pages that contain pages that contain the "support.moonpoint.com", though that will find only instances where the website name appears on a page, not instances where a link points to the site.

References:

1. Who is linking to my website?
   By Raghavendra Prabhu, a developer in Microsoft on the MSN/Windows Live Search backend team

[/network/web/search] permanent link

Account Acces Via Remote Web Workplace

If you try to log into a system in a domain remotely using Remote Web Workplace, but get a message that "The local policy of this system does not permit you to logon interactively", the following steps can be taken at the domain controller to resolve the problem and provide remote access to the system for a domain account.

1. Open "Server Management" by clicking on Start, All Programs, Administrative Tools, then Server Management.
2. Click on Client Computers.
3. Select the computer for which the user needs remote access by right-clicking on it then selecting Manage Computer.
4. Double-click on Local Users and Groups.
5. Click on Groups.
6. Double-click on Remote Desktop Users in the right pane.
7. Click on the Add button to add a new user to the Remote Desktop Users group.
8. In the "Enter the object names to select" field, place the user's domain account. Put the domain name followed by a "\" and then the account name. E.g. Acme\jdoe. Or you can use the form jdoe@acme.com.
9. Click on Check Names to verify the account.
10. Click on OK.
11. Click on OK again to close the "Remote Desktop Users Properties" window.
12. Close the Computer Management window.

Or you can resolve the problem by logging into the computer for which the user needs access and then taking the following steps, if that system is a Windows XP Professional system.

1. Click on Start.
2. Click on All Programs.
3. Click on Control Panel.
4. Click on Performance and Maintenance, if the system is set for "category view". If it is set for "classic view", go to the next step.
5. Click on Administrative Tools.
6. Click on Computer Management.
7. Click on Groups.
8. Double-click on Remote Desktop Users in the right pane.
9. Click on the Add button to add a new user to the Remote Desktop Users group.
10. In the "Enter the object names to select" field, place the user's domain account. Put the domain name followed by a "\" and then the account name. E.g. Acme\jdoe. Or you can use the form jdoe@acme.com.
11. Click on Check Names to verify the account.
12. Click on OK.
13. Click on OK again to close the "Remote Desktop Users Properties" window.
14. Close the Computer Management window.

[/os/windows/software/remote-control] permanent link

Fixing Passwords Plus Entry Display Problem

The Dataviz Passwords Plus program may sometimes not display any of the entries in a category in the left-hand pane of its window. To get the entries to reappear, you can edit the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\DataViz\PasswordsPlus\List View Info registry key.

[ More Info ]

[/os/windows/software/security/password] permanent link

PC Hardware in Garage

I need to start cleaning my garage, so I can at least walk around in it without knocking things over unless I watch my every step. So I've started posting information on items that I plan to sell on eBay.

Items to sell

[/pc/hardware] permanent link

Solaris Prtdiag Command

The prtdiag can be used on Solaris systems to display system diagnostic information.

/usr/sbin/prtdiag [-v] [-l]

The following options are supported:

-l       Log output. If failures or errors exist in the
         system, output this information to syslogd(1M) only.

-v       Verbose mode. Displays the time of the most  recent
         AC  Power  failure,  and  the  most recent hardware
         fatal  error  information,  and   (if   applicable)
         environmental  status.  The  hardware  fatal  error
         information is useful to repair  and  manufacturing
         for detailed diagnostics of FRUs.

The following exit values are returned:

0        No failures or errors are detected in the system.

1        Failures or errors are detected in the system.

If you are running Solaris 10 on an x86-based PC, the prtdiag command does not work on some earlier releases of Solaris 10. I have two PCs running Solaris 10. I installed the 3/05 release of Solaris 10 on the first and the 6/06 release of Solaris 10 on the second. On the first system I see "prtdiag: not implemented on i86pc" when I try to run prtdiag. On the system with the 6/06 release, prtdiag works and shows me the information below. You can determine which release you are using by looking at the contents of the /etc/release file.

# prtdiag
System Configuration: System manufacturer System Product Name
BIOS Configuration: American Megatrends Inc. 0501 08/26/2005

==== Processor Sockets ====================================

Version                          Location Tag
-------------------------------- --------------------------
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+ Socket 939

==== Memory Device Sockets ================================

Type    Status Set Device Locator      Bank Locator
------- ------ --- ------------------- --------------------
DDR     in use 0   DIMM0               BANK0
DDR     in use 0   DIMM1               BANK1
DDR     empty  0   DIMM2               BANK2
DDR     empty  0   DIMM3               BANK3

==== On-Board Devices =====================================
 Onboard Ethernet

==== Upgradeable Slots ====================================

ID  Status    Type             Description
--- --------- ---------------- ----------------------------
0   in use    PCI-X            PCIEX16
3   available PCI              PCI_1
4   available PCI              PCI_2
5   available PCI              PCI_3
1   available PCI-X            PCIEX1_1
2   available PCI-X            PCIEX1_2

[/os/unix/solaris] permanent link

Adding Users with Solaris Management Console

After installing Solaris 10 onto a home system, I clicked on the Launch button and looked for a tool to set up a user account. I was surprised that I could not find one. Sure, I could run useradd from the command line, but I expected to find some graphical tool readily available as a menu option from the root account as well. I had put Solaris 10 on an office system previously, but couldn't remember if I had used useradd to do so. I couldn't find admintool on the Solaris 10 system

There is a GUI tool, available under Solaris 10, the Solaris Management Console (SMC), but it wasn't a menu option accessible from the Launch button. You can start it from a command prompt by typing smc, however.

[ More Info ]

[/os/unix/solaris/smc] permanent link

Is Solaris Running on a Sparc or 32-bit or 64-bit I386 System?

You can determine whether Solaris is running on a Sparc system or an x86-based system from the command line using uname -a.

Examples

Architecture	"uname -a" output
Sparc	SunOS beetle 5.7 Generic_106541-39 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-5_10
32-bit x86	SunOS mantis 5.10 Generic i86pc i386 i86pc
64-bit x86	SunOS bee 5.10 Generic_118855-14 i86pc i386 i86pc

It isn't apparent from the uname output whether in the case of an x86-based system the system is a 32-bit or 64-bit system. But you can use the isainfo command to get that information.

Examples

Architecture	"isainfo" output
Sparc	sparcv9 sparc
32-bit x86	i386
64-bit x86	amd64 i386

You can get more information using the -v option for isainfo.

# isainfo -v
64-bit amd64 applications
        sse3 sse2 sse fxsr amd_3dnowx amd_3dnow amd_mmx mmx cmov amd_sysc cx8
        tsc fpu
32-bit i386 applications
        sse3 sse2 sse fxsr amd_3dnowx amd_3dnow amd_mmx mmx cmov amd_sysc cx8
        tsc fpu

[/os/unix/solaris] permanent link

Solaris 10 Installation Notes

I installed Solaris 10 on on a PC with an Asus A8S-X motherboard and an nVIDIA GeForce 7 series NX7300GS video card. I encountered a problem installing the 6/06 version of Solaris 10, because I had installed a previous version of Solaris 10 on the system, but apparently not wiped out the partitions created during that installation as I thought. I also enountered a problem getting the video resolution set the way I wanted. Resolving the first problem meant wiping out the existing Solaris partition during the reinstall process. I was able to resolve the second problem by running xorgconfig after the installation process completed.

[ More Info ]

[/os/unix/solaris] permanent link

Numbers to Dial for Information Associated with a Phone Number

If you need to determine the telephone number associated with a phone, you can call your own phonemail number, leave a message and then check your messages and, if the system provides callers' numbers, get the number you called from or you can dial MCI's 1-800-444-3333 number. An automated system will read the number you are calling from to you.

If you need to know the long distance carrier associated with a phone line, you can dial 1-700-555-4141 from the telephone you wish to check. You will hear an announcement telling you the name of the carrier.

And according to the sprint gives out customers data when you call article posted on digg, you can call 1-877-785-8414, which is a Sprint customer service line, put in any Sprint customer's phone number and get the full name and street address of the account holder. The number you are calling from doesn't matter.

[/phone] permanent link

Dxdiag - The DirectX Diagnostic Tool

Microsoft provides a DirectX Diagnostic Tool, dxdiag.exe , with Windows systems. The tool is designed to help you troubleshoot DirectX-related issues. You can run the tool from a command prompt by typing dxdiag or you can click on the Start button, select Run, type dxdiag, and hit Enter.

[ More Info ]

[/os/windows/utilities/diagnostic] permanent link

cm1.dll

When I scaned a system on July 1, 2006 with Norton AntiVirus 2005, Norton AntiVirus identified the cm1.dll file in c:\windows\system32 as malware associated with Spyware.ClientMan. I submitted the file to Jotti's Online Malware Scan, a site that scans uploaded files with multiple antivirus programs; 7 of the 15 antivirus programs with which it scanned the file reported cm1.dll as malware.

[ More Info ]

[/security/spyware/ClientMan] permanent link

Restarting Services with svcadm on Solaris 10 Systems

On systems running Solaris 10, you can restart services using the svcadm command. For instance, to restart the SSH daemon on Solaris 10 systems, from the root account use svcadm restart ssh.

# svcadm
Usage: svcadm [-v] [cmd [args ... ]]

        svcadm enable [-rst]  ...      - enable and online service(s)
        svcadm disable [-st]  ...      - disable and offline service(s)        svcadm restart  ...            - restart specified service(s)
        svcadm refresh  ...            - re-read service configuration
        svcadm mark [-It]   ... - set maintenance state
        svcadm clear  ...              - clear maintenance state
        svcadm milestone [-d]        - advance to a service milestone
        Services can be specified using an FMRI, abbreviation, or fnmatch(5)
        pattern, as shown in these examples for svc:/network/smtp:sendmail

        svcadm  svc:/network/smtp:sendmail
        svcadm  network/smtp:sendmail
        svcadm  network/*mail
        svcadm  network/smtp
        svcadm  smtp:sendmail
        svcadm  smtp
        svcadm  sendmail

[/os/unix/solaris] permanent link

Writing An ISO File to CD or DVD with Solaris

Solaris, at least version 10, provides the cdrw utility that can be used to write information to CDs or DVDs. To list all of the CD or DVD writers available on the system, you can use the cdrw -l command.

When I used the command on an x86-based Solaris system without any media in the drive, I saw the following:

# cdrw -l
Looking for CD devices...
No CD writers found or no media in the drive.

I placed a blank DVD in the DVD writer and tried again. I then saw the DVD writer listed.

# cdrw -l
Looking for CD devices...
    Node                   Connected Device                Device type
----------------------+--------------------------------+-----------------
 cdrom0               | DVDRW    IDE 16X          A188 | CD Reader/Writer

You can also use the command iostat -En to see information on the CD or DVD writers in a system.

# iostat -En
c0t1d0           Soft Errors: 21 Hard Errors: 3 Transport Errors: 0
Vendor: DVDRW    Product: IDE 16X          Revision: A188 Serial No:
Size: 0.00GB <8192 bytes>
Media Error: 0 Device Not Ready: 2 No Device: 1 Recoverable: 0
Illegal Request: 21 Predictive Failure Analysis: 0

If you have an .iso file, i.e. an image of a CD or DVD that you wish to write to a CD or DVD, you can use the command cdrw -i someimage.iso to write an image to a blank disc in a CD or DVD writer as in the example below.

# cdrw -i sol-10-u2-companion-ga.iso
Looking for CD devices...
Initializing device...done.
Writing track 1...done
Finalizing (Can take several minutes)...done.

If you wish to specify the device to use for writing, such as in the case where a system may have multiple devices capable of writing to CDs or DVDs, e.g. one CD writer and one DVD writer, you can use the -d option to specify the device to use for writing.

cdrw -i -d cdrom0 sol-10-u2-ga-x86-dvd.iso

The cdrw command supports the following options:

     -a       Creates an audio disk. At least one audio-file name
              must  be  specified. A CD can not have more than 99
              audio tracks, so no more than 99 audio files can be
              specified. Also, the maximum audio data that can be
              written to the media  by  default  is  74  minutes,
              unless -C is specified.

     -b       Blanks CD-RW or DVD-RW media. The type  of  erasing
              must  be  specified  by  the  all, fast, or session
              argument. DVD+RW media does not  support  blanking,
              but can be rewritten without the need for blanking.

     -c       Copies a CD. If no other argument is specified, the
              default  CD  writing  device  is  assumed to be the
              source device as  well.  In  this  case,  the  copy
              operation  reads  the source media into a temporary
              directory and prompts you to place  a  blank  media
              into the drive for the copy operation to proceed.

     -C       Uses stated media capacity.  Without  this  option,
              cdrw  uses  a  default value for writable CD media,
              which is 74 minutes  for  an  audio  CD,  681984000
              bytes for a data CD, or 4.7 Gbytes for a DVD.

     -d       Specifies the CD or DVD writing device.

     -h       Help. Prints usage message.

     -i       Specifies the image file for creating data  CDs  or
              DVDs. The file size should be less than what can be
              written on the media.  Also,  consider  having  the
              file  locally  available instead of having the file
              on an NFS-mounted file system. The CD writing  pro-
              cess  expects  data  to  be  available continuously
              without interruptions.

     -l       Lists all the CD or DVD writers  available  on  the
              system.

      -L       Closes the disk. If the media was left in  an  open
              state  after the last write operation, it is closed
              to prevent any further writing. This operation  can
              only be done on re-writable CD-RW media.

     -m       Uses an alternate temporary  directory  instead  of
              the  default  temporary directory for storing track
              data while copying a CD or DVD. An  alternate  tem-
              porary  directory  might  be  required  because the
              amount of data on a CD can be  huge.  For  example,
              the amount of data can be as much as 800 Mbytes for
              an 80 minute audio CD and 4.7 Gbytes for a DVD. The
              default  temporary  directory  might  not have that
              much space available.

     -M       Reports media status. cdrw reports if the media  is
              blank  or  not,  its  table  of  contents, the last
              session's start  address,  and  the  next  writable
              address  if  the disk is open. DVD+RW does not sup-
              port erasing and always has  some  content  on  the
              media.

     -O       Keeps the disk open. cdrw closes the  session,  but
              it  keeps the disk open so that another session can
              be added later on to create a multisession disk.

     -p       Sets the CD writing speed. For example, -p  4  sets
              the  speed  to 4X. If this option is not specified,
              cdrw uses the default speed of the  CD  writer.  If
              this  option  is  specified,  cdrw tries to set the
              drive write speed to this value, but  there  is  no
              guarantee  of  the actual speed that is used by the
              drive.

     -s       Specifies the source device for  copying  a  CD  or
              DVD.

     -S       Simulation mode. In this mode, cdrw  operates  with
              the  drive  laser turned off, so nothing is written
              to the media. Use this option to verify if the sys-
              tem  can  provide data at a rate good enough for CD
              writing.

     -T       Audio format to use for extracting audio  files  or
              for  reading audio files for audio CD creation. The
              audio-type can be sun, wav, cda, or aur.

     -v       Verbose mode.

     -x       Extracts audio data from an audio track.

[/os/unix/solaris] permanent link