Ergo

KMS activations (I believe) are validated periodically by the client machine, so I would expect your clients to contact the new KMS server given time and therefore reach the threshold. From Here

You could ask some of the WEEE recycling companies or mobile phone recycling companies? All they have to do is ensure they are not delivered to landfill so re-use is a good option for them. Dave

Slightly off the topic of where this thread went, but I have been looking for an article I saw related to this - someone earlier mentioned Microsoft would publish some easy steps for migrating from Gmail... well they did:: Dave

We have dealt with a number of schools who are looking at this, and in most cases the best solution we have used is to NOT enable VLAN Routing, but instead ask you Broadband supplier to enable a second port on your router for the Guest network with a separate IP range, and then simply connect that as the default gateway for the BYOD/Guest VLAN. Regards, Dave

I agree with @FN-GM but would add that may be best to remove the CA role before demoting the server from being a DC. Iirc there were issues with 2003 when the CA was on a DC that you could not change the DC while the CA service is present. Regards David

Sounds like I need to get some upgrading of my skills one! Thanks for the tip. Dave

I think that you need the following: Protocol 41 inbound and outbound—For DirectAccess clients that use the 6to4 IPv6 transition technology to encapsulate IPv6 packets with an IPv4 header. In the IPv4 header, the Protocol field is set to 41 to indicate an IPv6 packet payload. UDP destination port 3544 inbound and UDP source port 3544 outbound—For DirectAccess clients that use the Teredo IPv6 transition technology to encapsulate IPv6 packets with an IPv4 and UDP header. The Forefront UAG DirectAccess server is listening on UDP port 3544 for traffic from Teredo-based DirectAccess clients. TCP destination port 443 inbound and TCP source port 443 outbound—For DirectAccess clients that use IP-HTTPS to encapsulate IPv6 packets within an IPv4-based HTTPS session. The Forefront UAG DirectAccess server is listening on TCP port 443 for traffic from IP-HTTPS-based DirectAccess clients. I have only copied the section relating to an IPv4 Internet connection - I assume your ISP has not provided you with IPv6 addresses This was taken from Tom Shinder's Blog - although this talks about being when you use a UAG server I believe the same is true if you have your DirectAccess server directly published. It is also worth noting that you cannot place a DirectAccess server beghind a NAT translator - IE if your internet connection is provided by the LA and your servers are assigned a 10.x.x.x address you cannot use that to provide DirectAccess. The DirectAccess server (or UAG server if you have one of those) should have a valid Internet IP address. Regards, Dave

Restting IIS can be done using the command IISRESET /NOFORCE The NoForce part means that if there are any active connections it will wait till they terminate and therefore will not always shut down the IIS services within the comman's timeout. I would generally use IISRESET as this will restart all IIS services not just the web publishing service (I think). Dave

All, Looks like there are far more knowldgable people already involved in this conversation thread, but are you aware that Microsoft have added some additional features to https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/ which allow testing of Office 365 including the SSO elements? I have found the testing and logging from this very useful in the past (although not used the O365 features specifically). Dave

Good point - will depend on how the wireless controller is configured with the SSID-VLAN associations. Dave

Does the wireless controller have diagnostic tools from within it's interface such as Ping? If so can you ping from the wireless controller to something on VLAN 999? My assumption would be that the wireless system is not correctly tagging traffic onto VLAN 999 when connected to the Guest network. The switch configuration looks correct. Dave

Daryl, Any chance of you getting the windowsupdate.log file from one of the client machines which is NOT reporting? Dave

Daryl, I cannot see the GPO you have deploying WSUS settings to the client (looks like edugeek forum has lost the picture?) so if you could send the settings would be useful. I would recommend explicitly putting an exception for the WSUS server (name or IP depending on how you have specified it) in your proxy settings. Also important to ensure you have populated both settings (server address and reporting address). Also there is a Windows Update log file which is in C:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log so it would be useful to look in there for more detailed error information. I would not recommend posting the whole file as it can get quite big! Dave

Yes. the last line triggers the Windows Update service on the client to start scanning - can take a few minutes though. If you are running this on a machine which has already registered with the WSUS server you may be better to change the last line to: wuauclt /detectnow This will reduce the likelyhood of duplicates in the WSUS console. Dave

Step 1: Identify all Domain Controllers on the network. Ensure they are at least the version of Windows you are planning on raising the functional level to. Read Understanding Active Directory Functional Levels for details on added features and domain controller version supported. Step 2: Ensure your AD is perfectly working (DCDiag / NetDiag / Event log checks) on all Domain Controllers Step 3: If you have had previously failed Exchange Servers or Domain Controllers complete a MetaData cleanup inside Active Directory (I will find links with instructions if you need them). Step 4: Identify anything which is NOT windows based which links to AD for authentication (raising functional level above 2003 will change security settings within AD which could break/disable this functionality) Step 5: Identify all FSMO roles within your Active Directory and ensure they are on live servers and working Step 6: (and also Step 0!!!) Take full backups of all domain controllers If all of the above succeeded and you have no concerns then the functional level change should be ok. I provide no guarantees at all (sorry)! Remember to upgrade the Domain functional level before the Forest functional level. Dave

Rob, Hopefully this is a simple one: in Outlook go to calendar, right click on the calendar and hover over the Share menu (sub-menu appears) and you should see Calendar Permissions. Normally you will see permissions for Default and Anonymous users - you can add individuals or groups from the GAL and apply permissions. I suspect that you will want to provide Author level permissions for the PA. Dave

Just looked and the certificate looks good when I connect (FF11):

This is probably because the shortcuts which Office creates in the start menu are not standard .lnk shorcuts pointing to the .exe file, but a managed shortcut linked to the Windows Installer Service. To resolve this if you create a shortcut manually and point it to the require .exe files, and then copy that to your redirected start menu you should find it works with no problems. Dave

not sure I understand this error - can you post me a screenshot? Thanks Dave

Not necessarily, but there must be something wrong with the script, or the users' ability to run it. The trick here is going to be identifying that problem! To look at this from another direction, if you have two people next to each other - one who it works for, and one who it does not work for - will it ALWAYS be the same for each of those users? (ie it Never works for User A, and always works for User B?) Apologies if I have asked this before. If you swap those two people over to the other machine will you get the same result? For two users (one who it works for, and one who it does not) are the group memberships and OU locations of user account identical? Dave

Is there anything showing in the System or Application event logs on the client machine when this happens? Dave

I've just run a quick test on my machine here and used the following script: Dim ObjFolder, ObjFolderItem, colVerbs, objverb, objshell Set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application") Set objFolder = objShell.Namespace("C:\Program Files\WinRAR") Set objFolderItem = objFolder.ParseName("WinRAR.exe") Set colVerbs = objFolderItem.Verbs For Each objVerb in colVerbs If Replace(objVerb.name, "&", "") = "Pin to Start Menu" Then objVerb.DoIt Next WScript.Quit with the following in a command prompt window: C:\Users\davidi>cscript C:\Users\davidi\Desktop\startMenu.vbs Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. C:\Users\davidi> This pinned WinRAR into the start menu for me successfully. I would therefore recommend for a user who this did not work for on your systems look at the script line by line and test the path, exe name. Also when you right click on the Exe you are trying to pin that "Pin to Start Menu" does exist in the context menu. Dave

OK, that is useful - that the script did not work when run manually is key - this means either the script is faulty, or something about the users' environment is not applicable to that user/machine combination. From the missing network drives I would look carefully at the users' profiles. Dave

OK, thanks that makes more sense to me now. I went off on a tangent! You may want to post this into the Smoothwall forum in case the issue is with the DNS record you have created. Sorry I am not an expert in this, but will have a look to see if I can find answers for you. Dave

As with all projects it is important to set your goals at the beginning. Think about what the purpose of the wireless coverage is. Are you looking for blanket coverage for a small number of devices but only for low bandwidth (internet) access? Do you expect to have whole classes of school devices in small areas (one classroom) who will be logging on with network profiles all at the same time? Are you looking to implement BYOD and do you need to look at the security and support of your network? There are many varied options for why you may want a wireless network and deciding what they are before you look at specific technologies, brands or testing is important to allow you to fairly evaluate the products against your needs. Remember how you as a school decide to use wireless devices may not be the same as the school down the road. Issues to consider with Wireless: 1. Coverage - just classrooms, corridors (for VoIP?), outside areas? 2. Density - how many devices in a given area at the same time? 3. Access - Personal devices, school devices, guests, students? 4. Security - how will you ensure only the correct users/machines are accessing the appropriate resources? 5. Support - how will you deal with the potentially increased support requirement (eg. BYOD accessing network & resources)? 6. Future plans - what may change in 1/2/3/5 years? Will the system develop and grow with you as a school? Hope that helps Dave