Category: Troubleshooting

Missing Active Directory Attribute Editor Tab

Ran into this issue a couple times now while migrating Small Business Server (SBS) clients from on-premis Exchange to Office365. After setting up the DirSync tool on the server, to add an email alias to a user’s Office 365 account it needs to be setup in the Active Directory Attribute Editor tab under the proxyAddresses attribute. The easiest way to do this is add a record as follows:

Add the Active Directory Attribute Editor Tab in Small Business Server

smtp:[useralias@yourcompany.com]

into the proxyAddresses section of the Attributes tab:

Active Directory Attribute Tab

This is normally easy to do and then run a manual DirSync to add the alias to the user’s Office 365 account, but what if the Attributes tab is missing? It is time to break out the ADSIedit tool again to make the needed changes to the way these pages are displayed. Here are the steps to get it done:

  • open ADSIedit.msc
  • Right click on ADSIedit and choose “connect to”
  • Under connection point select “select a well known Naming context” and in that window choose “Configuration”
  • Under computer leave as “Default (Domain or server that you logged into)” then click OK
  • Expand CN=configuration, DC=[your domain], DC=local
  • Expand CD=DisplaySpecifiers
  • Click on CN=your language. (The language # can be found on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324097 for example US English is 409, so CN=409)
  • In the right hand window locate CN=User-Display right click and choose properties
  • Locate AdminPropertyPages, highlight it and click “edit” and add the line

11,{c7436f12-a27f-4cab-aaca-2bd27ed1b773}

  • In the right hand window locate CN=Computer-Display right click and choose properties
  • ocate AdminPropertyPages, highlight it and click “edit” and add the line

12,{c7436f12-a27f-4cab-aaca-2bd27ed1b773}

  • In the right hand window locate CN= Default-Display right click and choose properties
  • Locate AdminPropertyPages, highlight it and click “edit” and add the line

4,{c7436f12-a27f-4cab-aaca-2bd27ed1b773}

Make sure to click on the View menu in Active Directory Users and Computers to choose the Advanced Features option if not already selected to see these newly added Active Director Attribute Editor Tab in the display.

Change Office 365 Distribution Group Restriction

If an Office 365 Distribution Group is being synced from on-premise Active Directory environment then you cannot receive emails to that group from an external source by default. If you try to change the setting in Office 365 the following error appears:

The action ‘Set-DistributionGroup’, ‘RequireSenderAuthenticationEnabled’, can’t be performed on the object ‘[Your Distribution Group]’ because the object is being synchronized from your on-premises organization. This action should be performed on the object in your on-premises organization.

Office 365 Distribution Group Error

This can be changed using the ADSIEdit tool. Navigate through the Active Directory hierarchy and find the Distribution Group then right click and choose Properties. Scroll down to “msExchRequireAuthToSendTo” and change the setting to FALSE. Run a manual DirSync to effect the changes in Office 365.

Office 365 Distribution Group - ADSI Edit

My Computer Shows Network Drive Red Xs

Kept getting calls from clients about their network drives “disappearing” or disconnecting throughout the day at “random” intervals, so after much troubleshooting found these steps to take on the workstations and file server to help alleviate the issue:

Network Drive Red Xs On the Workstation:

1. Click on Start button then choose Control Panel
2. In Control Panel open the Device Manager
3. Expand the Network Adapters and open each one used on that workstation
4. Look in the Power Management tab and Advanced tabs to look for any power settings that would disable the device then uncheck them. Click OK button and close all other windows.
5. Open the Registry Editor.
6. Expand the tree to the following key:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Service\lanmanworkstation\parameters

7. If it doesn’t exist then create a REG_DWORD named KeepConn with the Decimal value of 86400 (aka 24 hours)
8. Reboot the workstation for changes to take effect.

Network Drive Red Xs On the Server:

1. Login as administrator
2. Open Command Prompt as administrator
3. Type in the following to disable Auto Disconnect of network drives:

net config server /autodisconnect:-1

4. Reboot the server for changes to take effect.

Command Line Configuring TCP/IP Addressing

Recently had an issue where a client needed to have their IP address statically assigned and the thought came to mind that my Remote Monitoring software was able to give me command line access, so I thought I would try configuring TCP/IP addressing via the command line interface and not have to interrupt the end users work. Here is how to get it done:

netsh interface ip set address name="Local Area Connection" static [static IP] [subnet mask] [default gateway] 1

That gets the IP address, subnet mask and default gateway – so what about static DNS? Here is the next step:

netsh interface ip add dns name="Local Area Connection" addr=[DNS address #1]

netsh interface ip add dns name="Local Area Connection" addr=[DNS address #2] index=2

If your company need remote assistance or help planning / maintaining / configuring TCP/IP addressing in your network infrastructure, then contact us for assistance.

Scheduled Windows Server Restart

There have been innumerable times that I have had to schedule a Windows Server restart for after hours so that I don’t have to log back in after hours to do this manually. So here is a quick command to schedule a reboot at 11:59 PM (copy & paste for greater degree of simplicity):

schtasks /CREATE /SC once /TN “Windows Server Restart” /TR “shutdown /r /t 0 /f” /ST 23:59 /RL highest

This should be done within an administrative command prompt. Leave the server logged in for it to complete successfully (this is highly recommended not to do) or change the one setting in the Task Scheduler to run the Windows Server Restart task as a particular user.

Network Ransomware Infection Best Practices

After several clients have faced this issue, it time to write out some best practices for how to immediately deal with an infection from one of the Cryptolocker / Cryptowall network ransomware infection variants. These usually infect a single workstation on the network, encrypt all local files, encrypt all network file shares and leave an instruction file on how to pay for the decrypt key in every folder. A good backup of the network file servers is key for this network ransomware infection not to do devastating damage to a company.

Steps for cleaning up after the network ransomware infection:

1. Login to file server and find one of the instruction files (usually HELP_DECRYPT.txt or decrypt_instruction.html) on the affected network share.
2. Right click on the file, chose Properties and click on the Details tab. The Owner listed is most likely the username for the person using the only infected computer on the network.
3. Isolate this machine from the network, deep virus clean or wipe / reload the operating system to get rid of the infection.
4. It is also good to run basic virus scanning on all workstation and servers on the network to determine if further infection has happened. Clean as needed.
5. It is good to know all the infected files on the file server, so here is a Powershell script to do so (change the instruction file as needed):

get-childitem [local path of file share] -include HELP_DECRYPT.* -recurse | select fullname >> C:\TEMP\InfectedFiles.txt

6. Send a copy of an encrypted file and of one of the instruction files to your Antivirus vendor because obviously they missed something.
7. Next comes the cleaning of the instruction files, so more Powershell to automate this (change the instruction file as needed):

get-childitem [local path of file share] -include HELP_DECRYPT.* -recurse | foreach ($) {remove-item $.fullname}

8. Use backup software to restore affected file shares to an alternate location.
9. Copy / replace files into their original location from the alternate location.
10. Test to make sure that users are able to get back into their files.

If your company has been infected with a network ransomware infection or would like to be proactive about protecting your important company files from disaster, then contact us for assistance.

Event ID 1000 Faulting Application spoolsv.exe

Had a users who had their printers disappearing and even after reboot or Print Spooler Service restart the printers would vanish after only a few seconds. After much research found an article from Chicago Tech that explains in detail how to troubleshoot this Faulting Application spoolsv issue. Here are the three steps that fixed the issue for this domain user:

Step 1: Clear the print caches to fix Faulting Application spoolsv

1. Open “Computer” and browse to the folder “c:\windows\system32\spool\printers” and delete all the files in the folder.
2. Do the same to clear the content in the folder “c:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86”

If the above step doesn’t work, please perform the next one.

Step 2: Reset the printer spooler to fix Faulting Application spoolsv

1. Open command prompt as administrator
2. Type “Net stop RPCSS” (without quotation marks) and press Enter.
3. Type “sc config spooler depend= RPCSS” (without quotation marks and note the spacing) and press Enter.
4. Type “Net start RPCSS” (without quotation marks) and press Enter.
5. Type “Net start SPOOLER” (without quotation marks) and press Enter.
6. Delete the printer and reboot the computer to allow Group Policy to re-install printer.

If the issue persists, please go on to Step 3 since the issue can be caused
by some corrupted printer drivers on the computer.

Step 3: Remove Printer Drivers to fix Faulting Application spoolsv

1. open RegEdit as administrator
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print, click Registry->Export Registry File on the menu, and export the current key to a REG file for backup. (Note: You may double click on the REG file in Windows Explorer to restore the original settings)
3. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environment\Windows NT x86\Drivers, remove both the Version-2 and Version-3 keys if they exist.
4. Remove all sub keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers. (Do not remove the Printers key.)
5. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environment\Windows NT x86\PrintProcessors, delete any processor that is not the following:

winprint

6. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Providers, delete any provider that is not one of the following:

Internet Print Provider
LanMan Print Services

7. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors, delete any monitor that is not one of the following:

BJ Language Monitor
Local Port
PJL Language Monitor
Standard TCP/IP Port
USB Monitor
Windows NT Fax Monitor
AppleTalk Printing Devices
LPR Port

8. Exit the registry editor.\

9. Remove all files from the following directories if they exist:

C:\Windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\2
C:\Windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3

10. Reboot to let Group Policy install the printer drivers again. This will take extra time for this one reboot.
If your company is uses Group Policy to deploy printers or just needs help troubleshooting network printer issues, then contact us for assistance.

Sage 50 Data File Database Corruption Detected

This was a strange one for a client that uses Sage 50 Accounting and was trying to print a W-2 for an employee who “lost” theirs in the mail. Whenever they tried to create this the Aatrix form software crashed stating Sage 50 Data File Database Corruption Detected. (More precisely “Codebase Error #: -200 or Codebase Error #: 83805″ File is not a data file database corruption detected in Dat.bdf” when processing Aatrix tax forms.) The troubleshooting for this went on for some time until this Sage Support article was found. The first option worked like a charm.

Fixing Sage 50 Data File Database Corruption Detected

Section I: Replace Histories folder

1. Locate a valid backup taken prior to the last processing of the tax forms.
2. Rename the backup file to add .zip to the extension.
3. Rename the Histories folder in your individual company to Old-Histories
4. Open the newly renamed .zip file and copy the Histories directory to the individual company folder.
5. Start the tax form selector and process your forms.

If your company is using Sage 50 Accounting or has experienced any sort of database corruption issues, then contact us for assistance.

Test SMTP Connectivity via Telnet

Had issues recently with another tech setting up a SMTP relay to Google Apps that didn’t work correctly and during the process of correcting their setup there came a need to test SMTP connectivity. Time to use a telnet connection to the SMTP server over port 25 method to test via my favorite telnet/ssh/console program PuTTY:
1. Open PuTTY and type in the Host Name of the SMTP server.
2. Choose Connection type of Telnet and change the Port to 25 then click the Open button.
3. Type EHLO [hostname] and then press ENTER.
4. Type MAIL FROM:[authorizeduser@domain.com] and then press ENTER.
5. Type RCPT TO:[anotheruser@domain.com] and then press ENTER.
6. Type DATA and then press ENTER. You will receive a response that resembles the following:

354 Start mail input; end with .

7. Type Subject: [Test Subject] and then press ENTER.
8. Press ENTER. RFC 2822 requires a blank line between the Subject: header field and the message body.
9. Type [Test Message Body] and then press ENTER.
10. Press ENTER, type a single period character and then press ENTER. You will receive a response that resembles the following:

250 2.6.0 Queued mail for delivery

11. To disconnect from the destination SMTP server, type QUIT and then press ENTER. You will receive a response that resembles the following:

221 2.0.0 Service closing transmission channel

12. Check the [anotheruser@domain.com] mailbox to see if the message arrived successfully.

This allows testing of the connection without end user intervention or the creation of a test account to send from. If there is SMTP authentication or encryption then there are other commands that will need to be entered.
If your company is in need of help troubleshooting or needs to test SMTP connectivity on your email servers, then contact us for assistance.

Clients Receive WinMail.dat File

Had a customer reporting that their clients receive WinMail.dat file as an attachment instead of the email that they intended. According to Microsoft Support:

The Winmail.dat file is used to preserve Rich Text formatting. Outlook uses it when sending a Rich Text-formatted message. During transport, the content of the message may be changed, preventing the receiving client from being able to read the formatting instructions. In other cases, the receiving client does not use or recognize the winmail.dat file.

Two ways to stop clients receive WinMail.dat file as attachment

Either send everyone plain text emails or change the settings on a per contact basis inside of Outlook. Here is a link for how to do it on a per contact basis, this can be tricky but worth it if you want to keep the rich text formatting of email for the rest of your contacts.
If your company is using Exchange or Office 365 for email and need help troubleshooting, then contact us for assistance.

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