Cisco FirePOWER is Blocking an Application
Feb27

Cisco FirePOWER is Blocking an Application

KB ID 0001286  Problem A few weeks ago I installed a 5525-X firewall for a client, and set it up as follows; ASA Setup FirePOWER Services (for ASDM) And all was well, then a week later I got an email… One of our teachers is doing a project with MATHS and ICT involving bitcoin. Basically, he has something called BITCOIN CORE WALLET installed and it used to work with the old Firewall. I’ve installed it on my work laptop and taken...

Read More
Avaya / Nortel Switch Notes
Feb22

Avaya / Nortel Switch Notes

KB ID 0001285  Problem I don’t often use Nortel (now Avaya) switches, I know they are decent, but in my day job I usually work on Cisco, occasionally HP, and other cheap assorted nastiness switches. I was replacing an old 10/100 Cisco 3750 switch with a Nortel 4526GTX this week, and thought I’d take some notes for the common things I do, just in case I have to do another. So this post is an eclectic collection of the...

Read More
Changing the Windows 10 Browser, So It Isn’t Edge
Feb14

Changing the Windows 10 Browser, So It Isn’t Edge

KB ID 0001284 Problem I’ve seen one person use Edge as their browser in a business environment. I’ve got nothing against it, (I use a macOSX anyway). But I had a client that asked me how to make sure his machines are set to NOT use Edge as the default browser. I’m going to use Internet Explorer instead, but you can do the same with Chrome or Firefox depending on your browser of choice. Solution What I’m going...

Read More
Stop Windows Servers ‘Locking’ with Group Policy
Feb13

Stop Windows Servers ‘Locking’ with Group Policy

KB ID 0001283  Problem Servers locking themselves after a period of inactivity is, (in most cases) a good thing. But on my test network that only I use it gets a bit annoying switching between machines and constantly having to unlock Windows all the time!   Note: For obvious security reasons don’t do this on a production network! Solution   Create a new GPO linked to your computer OU, (or edit an existing one). Edit the policy....

Read More
Windows – Forcing Domain Group Policy
Feb11

Windows – Forcing Domain Group Policy

KB ID 0001282 Problem I’ve written hundreds of posts about doing things with group policies. Every time I finish one, I write a couple of paragraphs on how long to wait, or how to force the policy etc. So I’ve finally got round to writing a post I can simply reference! How Long Before Group Policy Changes Are Applied? This is something that hasn’t changed since I was doing Windows 2000 exams 🙂 The default interval...

Read More
Windows – Deploy and Configure Photo Screen Saver via GPO
Feb02

Windows – Deploy and Configure Photo Screen Saver via GPO

Screen Saver via GPO KB ID 0001281 Problem I was tasked with working out how to do this for a client a couple of weeks ago, so I thought it would make a decent article. I’m going to have a central server share, with some photos in, then I’m going to copy them down to all the clients, and finally set their screen saver to use those photos as a ‘slide show’ screen saver. I’ve done this with Windows 10...

Read More
AnyConnect – “Connection attempt has failed due to server communication errors’
Jan31

AnyConnect – “Connection attempt has failed due to server communication errors’

KB ID 0001279  Problem We had a firewall fail at work this week, as part of the rebuild the latest OS was put on it, version 9.7(1). I thought no more about it until I tried to VPN in and got this; I used my Windows 10 VM and that connected fine, only my MacBook could not connect, this VPN tunnel is a big deal I need it to get onto client’s networks. I tried my other VPN connections and every one was fine, only the recently...

Read More
Getting MORE! Free Airport / Hotel Free Wi-Fi
Jan27

Getting MORE! Free Airport / Hotel Free Wi-Fi

KB ID 0001278  Problem I was at the Airport the other day, and was pleased to find they had free Wi-Fi. So I opened my Email and started doing some work. The problem was, it was only free for 45 minutes and, (as is usually the case) I was going to be in the airport for a couple of hours. Not only that, you are expected to sign up for airport related spam and marketing materials? So 45 minutes later, I was dumped off the WiFi, and was...

Read More
Unified Networking Lab – Connecting ESX VM to the Internet
Jan16

Unified Networking Lab – Connecting ESX VM to the Internet

KB ID 0001276 Problem UPDATE: This is an old article, UNL is now EVE-NG, please use the following link; EVE-NG Connecting to the Internet UNL is by far the coolest bit of kit I’ve got my hands on this year. I can run it in ESX, and connect to it from anywhere, so I don’t have to keep my labs on my laptop. But what if you want to connect your labs to a live network? Theres a great article on the unetlab website for the...

Read More
Unable to Find a Default Server With Active Directory Web Services Running
Jan15

Unable to Find a Default Server With Active Directory Web Services Running

KB ID 0001275  Problem I was trying to get a list of all users on a client’s domain that had either a logon script, profile, or a mapped drive that was being set on their AD user object. But when I ran the command I got this error; Get-ADUser : Unable to find a default server with Active Directory Web Services running. Solution Active Directory Web services was introduced in Server 2008 R2, but I was running the command on a...

Read More