OverWorked

I've been trying, and failing, to access the web on a Windows Mobile 6 device through secured (WEP) wireless and a proxy web server. I have entered the wep key and connected to the wireless OK. I have entered the proxy server IP many times. It keeps losing it. IE still cannot access any websites. We had PocketPC with Windows Mobile 6 years ago and had this problem then. We had to make our wireless open to get it to work (not desirable) I read at the time that Windows Mobile IE had a problem with secured networks (IE could not access web sites). I see the problem still hasn't been fixed. The devices also heve Opera installed, but this won't work either. Switching to a non-secured WLAN fixes the problem and browsers work no problem. Has anyone successfully permenantly set up Windows Mobile to browse the web over a WEP connection? I'm currently supporting a school looking to invest in PocketPCs for GPS work. The data is to be transferred via wildknowledge.co.uk, so web access is essential. I can't recommend that they invest, with it as it is. We're considering adding O2 SIM card to the devices for internet access, rather than using the schools WLAN. Or use a non-windows device. From experience, I have serious reservations about using Windows Mobile in school. Thanks. We're pretty desperate, so any help would be much appreciated.

I've started a new thread, as it's changed topic from .exe file to .swf.

The above method does block executables like .bat, and .exe, but does not block .swf, even if you add it to the Designated File Types. I'm not sure what's going on, but the Desgnated File Types list by default includes items like .lnk and .url but the policy doesn't disallow these. I've added SWF file type and it doesn't block that either. Any ideas why it's only applying to some file types and not others? (We're wandering off topic now, which was how to block executables. I might start another thread).

Sorry, I was too busy looking at her top to hear a word she said. PS: It's my 40th birthday today, so I can say what I want (just for once).

I've just cracked it with a combination of USBDLM to lock USB drives to drive letters, and a Software Restriction Policy to stop executables. Install USBDLM with the .msi and GPO and another .msi to deploy the .ini file with USBDLM's drive letters. Set a GPO with a Software Restriction Policy for pupils. Leave everything at the defaults and add additional rules to disallow %homeshare%, %homepath%, H:\ (their home drive, but this may be the same as %homepath%), then the USBDLM drive letters: U:\, W:\ etc. Don't set paths like U:\*.bat. It doesn't work like that. Disallowing U:\*.bat will only block .bat file on the root of U: and nothing else. Pretty useless. Just set paths like U:\ and it will block all file types listed in the Designated File Types in all subfolders.

They have a good point, backed up by some good examples lower down. Colours schemes really do influence feeling, just like musical keys do in a composition. Don't underestimate the power of colour, especially when trying to sell something or convey a political idea.

I looked at GoDaddy and RapidSSL, after IpsCA revoked their cert. I went with rapidSSL in the end. They were quick, easy to install, and cheap. The one month freeSSL was a bit harder to set up as it involved an automated telephone authentication stage. Mmmm... I've just looked at RapidSSL again whilst typing this, and their prices are much higher than I paid (was about £15, now £49 per year). Either they've put their prices up, or I got an education discount.

John, you are a star! I'm in the process of setting up a win 7 machine the hard way. Install XP by RIS, upgrade to Vista, upgrade to 7. I expect to end up with a messy OS that doesn't work quite right - the way they do after 2 upgrades.

Fixed it. The answer was simple. On creating the new VM in VMWare Server, I was selecting Vista as the operating system to go on it. It was putting different hardware than it would for XP. I was then trying to install XP on it. I was doing this because my intention was to upgrade to Vista then to 7. I don't have a bootable cliean install 7 DVD. The answer is to just select XP as the original operating system. Funny how your brain turns to mush under pressure.

Thanks anyway Gatt. You're right it should work, but in my experience it didn't.

Do VMWare publish drivers for the virtula hardware for XP? I've just upgraded my VMWare Server from 2.0 to 2.0.2. Now when I try to install XP from RIS with the current images, I get the "image you have selected does not contain the necessary driver for your network adapter" message. It looks like VMWare have changed the virtual hardware NIC. I can't find drivers on VMWare's site. Thanks.

Is it possible to have RIS and WDS on the same network? How do the clients select which one to use? I'm asking because I've got my old RIS server set up very well with XP images. I leapfrogged Vista and and am now dabbling with 7, so am a bit out of touch. I want to start using WDS but not at the expense of my RIS server. Last time I upgraded a RIS server to WDS, it broke it.

@K-Bot: You lucky, luck thing! I've been to Grand Canyon twice. Long time ago though. I hiked along the Bright Angel trail - it was one of the best experiences of my life. Stayed in Flagstaff most of the time - wonderful town. Just wanted to say that!

Do what ZeroHour and HullFC have suggested. GP preferences aren't there by default in server 2003, but appear when you upgrade the schema for Vista and manage it from Vista. It's been a while since I did mine, so can't remember how it's done. Anyway when it's done it's a doddle to set registry values. See this - it's actually simpler than it looks, and better than running .reg scripts.

From experience, this approach won't work. I know, I used to do it too. Browolf is right - students will soon find ways round url blacklists, or DNS poisoning very quickly. We don't go as far as a whitelist (walled garden), though. Our LA's ISP block facebook and similar social networking sites, and I had little idea how they were still spending all their lesson time on it. When we got Smoothwall School Guardian two years ago, I found it blocking the whole load of proxies they had been using. Facebook is dead in our school now (as far as we know!). I would seriously recommend you get SG or something similar.

I backup to a Buffalo Terastation Pro II. I get approx 450-550 MB/min including verification. The weekly full backup is 322GB in 15 hours.

Thanks everyone. I got it working again, but couldn't find the cause. In order, I tried:- 1) FN-GM's suggestion for the IP stack. Good idea, but made no difference. 2) srochford: disk space OK, SYSTEM permissions looked OK. 3) theriver: had to restart in safe mode, then used msconfig to disable the non-ms services, and the services control to set the ms services to manual. Rebooted OK, and slowly restarted each service and set back to auto. No problems. I've spent about 4 hours and rebooted several times with all the stopped services now running and it's perfectly OK. I have no idea what was causing the problem. System and application logs show nothing untoward. Total mystery. Thanks for all the suggestions.

I've just looked at my external ePortal server (Web Server 2008) and nothing much is running on it. It's virtualised (VMWare Server) but that shouldn't make a difference. There's no network connection, and a lot of automatic services aren't running. When I try to start any of them I get error 1053. The event viewer doesn't show anything obvious about services not running (I think that's another symptom - events just aren't getting logged - Windows Error Reporting Service isn't running). Even if I try to restart some of the running services, they won't restart. I back up the VM every week with a script to stop it, copy and restart it. The backup is also corrupt. I could just create a new VM, and reinstall ePortal and the SSL cert, although on IIS7 that's not a quick job. Any ideas? Automatic Services not running:- Application Experience Application Host Helper Cryptographic Services Diagnostic Policy Service Distributed Link Tracking Client Facility Data Server Facility ePortal IKE... IP Helper IPSec policy Network List Service Network Location Awareness Print Spooler Remote Registry Secondary logon Server Sophos (various) Terminal Services VMWare Tools Windows Error Reporting Service WMI Windows Time WWW Publishing Distributed Transaction KtmRm TPM Base Windows Remote Management Windows Update Thanks!

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Thanks, everyone. Serco fixed it the next morning in a 90-minute remote desktop session. The solution was quite complex, I really can't remember it all, and involved some of what people have suggested here. It looks like (I could be wrong) that a patch has added another place where the ISAPI fiter has to be enabled. Anyway, Serco know about it now so if anyone else has the same problem, please ask them!

Another thing... Getting phone calls at home in the late evenings, Sundays, when you're putting the kids to bed or any other inconvenient time isn't much fun. Most recent example was 8:30 pm Saturday night "could you just come over and ... ?". I have to grit my teeth and calmly explain that I'm not working at the moment, when what I really want to do is tell them to get lost.

Steve, Good for you! I hope you do well. I wasn't being down on people who do do this. It's just that it's not the easy way to riches that it may seem to be.

Just to comment on theeldergeek's posts. He may sound negative, but in my experience he's largely right. I have my main job in a school, and a few bread-and-butter clients (a couple of charities and a small school) who I see regularly. Another big problem with becoming self-employed and working on people's home computers, is that your technical skills won't advance with the technology. In a school or corporate environment, I'm kept reasonably up-to-date with the constant push for technology, servers, server operating systems, web filters, firewalls, etc... If I were to give this up and just fix home computers, (and I was seriously considering it a while ago), I think I'd soon find my career at a dead end. I'd be stuck knowing the latest MS home OS inside out, but not much else. Another thing, if you do want to go for it, don't get a high street shop front - they're very expensive. Better to work out of a car with a small toolbox and visit customers in their home. It's the personal touch, more convenient for them, and a lot cheaper for you. Have a small workshop somewhere (spare room) as a base for bigger overnight jobs, and as an office. These little computer repair shops are popping up all over, and have to sell hardware at ridiculous mark-ups, because of their high costs. (£12 for a USB cable, anyone?) Another thing: don't do it for beer (or peanuts!). It harms your credibility. In this trade, your credibility is your only real asset. Charge a decent honest rate. Just my 2p worth.

Hello, I've already logged this with Serco, but I'll see if I get an answer here first. I run ePortal on IIS 7, and following an updgrade to v09.2, I can't access it through port 80 any more(it was on port 80 before the upgrade). It still works through port 8080. What's gone wrong? Any ideas? I can't find the answer on the Serco KB. Thanks.

I'm on the east coast mainline and am having to view edugeek with the images turned off to get the connection just about bearable.