As you may know, SBS 2008 always wants to be the DHCP server in a domain. Not a problem, right? Well, if you have the Linksys WRTU54G-TM router from T-Mobile, it is a problem.

The issue is that even though you can go into the network setup on the router and disable DHCP, it never stops the service. This means that you now have two DHCP servers on one network giving conflicting addresses.

The Linksys WRTU54G-TM router from T-Mobile is absolutely necessary if you have “T-Mobile @Home“ phone service. This service allows you to connect a standard land-line phone to the router and have a pseudo-landline through T-Mobile. You have to put a SIM card in the router and as other routers don’t accept SIM cards, this is the only one that you can use with this service.

So my client needed this router AND he needed his new SBS server. Though it is possible to have the SBS stop serving DHCP, it isn’t recommended. Here is how I solved the problem of keeping the router for my client’s phone service while installing a new router for the network gateway.

1. I got him a new router to set up as the default gateway for the network and set the IP Subnet to 192.168.0.x.
2. I connected the server and all office computers to this router.
3. I then connected the old router, WRTU54G-TM, behind the new one and set it up with a different IP Subnet of 192.168.1.x.

This allowed both routers to be active while the primary network and its computers received their DHCP through the server. The phone service still worked and at the end of the day, everyone was happy. And next time I see a sys WRTU54G-TM, I’ll know exactly how to handle it. If I can’t remove it, I’ll simply make it subservient to another router.

Tim

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Have you had either your Windows Vista computer or your SBS (Small Business Server) 2008 box lose their internet connection after you reboot? This recently happened to me after I installed SBS 2008 at a client’s location. It is easy to diagnose and the fix is relatively simple if you understand how to edit the registry on your computer.

Step 1: The Diagnosis:

1. Click on the “START” button and in the small box at the bottom, type “CMD” without the quotes.
2. A black box will appear with a blinking cursor. Type “ipconfig /all” and hit “Enter”.
3. You will see a lot of text that may look completely foreign to you.
4. Look the the row that says “Default Gateway”, if it is blank, then continue on to the “The Fix” section. If the “Default Gateway” is not blank, there is another problem and the fix below will not help you.

Step 2: The Fix:

1. Close out of the black box by typing “Exit” and hitting “Enter”.
2. Click on the “START” button and in the small box at the bottom, type “regedt32″ without the quotes.
3. The registry Editor will appear and you need to navigate to HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Tcpip/Parameters/Interfaces/
4. Here you’ll need to select the CLSID of your networkadapter where you change the settings. You’ll probably recognize it by looking at the value IPAddress that will have the IP of this adapter.
5. Open the value “DefaultGateway” by double-clicking it.
6. You will see a list of all the gateways that disappeared! ( in your case it may only be one) Very likely, the first line will be empty. I’m not sure, how this little flaw can make such a big problem.
7. Manually remove this first empty line, click OK and reboot your system everything should be working fine again.

Thanks to Ilja Herlein at http://www.netsetman.com/support/viewtopic.php?pid=832#p832 for the direction on how to fix this issue. I hope it helps you as much as it helped me!

Tim

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Sometimes we all need to be reminded to go back to basics.

Many months ago, I was called out to diagnose an Internet connection problem. When I arrived onsite I went through some basic troubleshooting steps like these.

1. Attempted to reach a webpage.                            Failed.
2. Checked for an IP address.                                   Valid.
3. Released and renewed IP address.                          Succeeded.
4. Attempted Ping test to 4.2.2.2.                            Succeeded.
5. Attempted Ping test to yahoo.com.                        Succeeded.

So at this point I know that there is a valid connection to the modem, router and Internet, but not the WWW. I also know that DNS is working as that is what translates yahoo.com to the address 209.131.36.159. (Yes, that is Yahoo’s real IP Address.) Since the Internet connection works and has been proven I start looking for other reasons why the WWW might not work.

1. I look for Norton/Symantec software on the PC.          None there.
2. I look for McAfee software on the PC.                        None there.
3. I flush the DNS cache.                                              No improvement.
4. I start looking for malware and viruses.                      None there.

I start wondering what’s happening so I bring my laptop in and use the existing cable. My laptop has the same problem with the same circumstances. Of course since I know that my laptop works I start thinking about what is the same in this scenario. The items in common are the modem, router, and cable. Since the modem is owned by Verizon, I can’t just switch it out. I can switch out the Ethernet cable so I switch it for my own used cable. IT WORKS!!! So I go and get the client a new cable and it still works.

This was the first (and last) time that I had ever seen a bad Ethernet cable cause such a problem. Usually, if the cable is bad, the whole network connection is down and you can’t even get a valid IP address but in this case, it just blocked one protocol. Strange.

So this day I got my reminder that I need to get back to basics and check the cables. And that clients shouldn’t have to pay for my wasted time. I only charged for 1 hour + an Ethernet cable.

Thank you for reading,
Tim

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Whenever you’re planning on getting a new computer, changing your ISP (Internet Service Provider), or just making changes to your network, don’t be afraid to ask for advice. Generally, computer consultants and repair shops are happy to give advice, especially to their current clients.

I am currently playing cleanup with a client who decided to change his ISP without telling me. Under many circumstances this would be fine but this client has his email server at his office and that makes the ISP change a big deal.

I received an email after I had closed up shop for the day so I didn’t see it until the next morning. As I often check my emails first things in the morning to know what my schedule looks like I saw his email that requested that I be on alert for problems. “No Problem” I thought. But after I had been awake for a little while I realized that this would mean that his Static IP Address would change and that would completely disrupt his email. Of course, no one wants their business email service disrupted. I then had to change my entire day around (fortunately I have great and understanding clients) to be at his office that afternoon for the change. As my client never received the IP address that everything was going to change to, I had to wait for the ISP’s installer to get that information.

The entire situation was unorganized as well as much more stressful and expensive than it had to be. Had I been informed even a few days earlier, I could have given them questions to ask and issues to watch out for. Fortunately, everything was handled in a manner that kept business downtime to a minimum.

We all have enough stress in our lives. Keep your unnecessary stress to a minimum by getting advice from professionals.

Thank you for reading,
Tim

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As everyone is having a difficult time in this recession, Biden PC has lowered its prices on all computer networking and repair. Going from $100 per hour, our new lower prices are as follows:

Businesses: $85.00 per hour
Residences: $75.00 per hour
Remote Support: $15.00 per 1/4 hour

Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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Linksys,

One of my client’s neighbors recently called your company for support because she didn’t know how to get her WPA key after her computer was wiped clear because of viruses. You told her to reset the router back to factory settings but then wouldn’t tell her how to set it up again! “Your router is out of warranty” is your reply. So now her entire company is in worse shape because she didn’t have the authority to spend $40.00 of her boss’s money.

That is just bad business.

1. You find out her problem.
2. know her router is out of warranty
3. You have her reset her router.
4. You can’t help her to restore it back to working order because it is out of warranty.
5. You offer to charge her to do it.

Shouldn’t you mention these facts before you have her reset her router and knock the entire company off the Internet?

It is such reasons that I refuse to sell Linksys products. I truly hope that you will change your way of business but I doubt it. You’re owned by Cisco and you are the industry’s 800 lb. gorilla so you don’t have to worry about the little guy.

Well, I hope that you are happy with the fact that you wanted to charge them $40.00 to set up a router. As soon as I can, I am going to move them to a Netgear router.

Sincerely NOT a Linksys reseller,
Tim Biden

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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“What is computer network consulting?” I get that question from time to time and I think this would be a great time to answer it.

Computer network consulting is one of those ambiguous terms that includes many different issues. In short, the best answer you can get is to ask each company what services they provide for their clients and customers.

I’m certain that if you do ask other computer network consulting companies what services they provide, their list would be a lot like ours. If you ask me that question, I would say that we do the following, and much more…

• Install and upgrade a networks, servers, and workstations
• Monitor the health of your network, servers, and workstations
• Monitor the health of your network’s routers and switches
• Prevent virus attacks, network intrusions, and network security issues
• Internet connection support
• Preventative maintenance of network and computers
• Network troubleshooting and repair
• Network hardware, software and cable sales
• PC troubleshooting and repair
• Provide desktop support

Those are among the many services that our clients love us for. The short of it is, we keep their network and computers running efficiently so they can keep their business running smoothly.

If there are any specific computer services that you or your business are in need of, contact us.

Happy Computing,

Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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I have a client who has a Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 system on his network and he is asking me to compile a list of his users’ passwords. The problem is that even with administrator access to the server, I can’t see the employees’ passwords. I informed him of this and gave him these 3 options as to how he can achieve such a list.

1. He can ask his employees for their passwords and compile the list himself.
2. I can create the list and adjust the users’ settings so they can’t change their passwords. I can then give them new ones.
3. The most secretive way is to perform a brute force attack within the server to attempt to discover the employees passwords. I would then create the list. If they change their passwords, I will have to perform another brute force attack.

There are problems with each of these solutions and I will go about them in the same order.

1. Asking the employees for their passwords could make them feel as though they aren’t trusted and cause a feeling of resentment. It could also compromise the users’ passwords for other accounts which is a complete lack of security.
2. If we state that we are changing the security policy and give the employees new passwords, it is a policy change and they have to accept that. Fortunately that would not compromise the employees’ passwords for other accounts.
3. The brute force attack is costly. What it entails is essentially hacking his own employees accounts on his own server. It takes time to do this and if the employees find out, their trust in the company could suffer. And like the first scenario of asking for the passwords, this may end up in compromising employees’ passwords for other their accounts.

My professional recommendation is to go with option number 2 because it has the fewest security options, is inexpensive and will create the least distrust within the company.

Having a Microsoft Windows 2003 Small Business Server on your network is a great way to increase the security and effectiveness of your small business computer network. It has many options to increase your network security. These options include maximum password life, minimum password complexity, how often you can reuse your passwords and in the event that you forget a password, the administrator can easily reset it. The administrator can’t see the employees’ passwords but they can reset them to something new.

I hope this helps.

Happy computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

Since you’re reading this blog post about computer repair, its pretty safe to say that you are looking for help with a computer that needs to be repaired. Whether you are looking for computer repair tools or a PC repair consultant, we can help you with the task at hand.

• If you are a home user and your computer has pop-ups, we can help.
• If you have a small business computer network and it has become slow, contact us.
• If you attempted to fix a friend’s computer and it still isn’t working right, we will get the PC working again.

We use many different computer diagnostics tools to get to the root of the problem, no matter what it is. If the problem is because of computer hardware such as a power supply, RAM or hard drive we will diagnose it and fix it. If it is a software problem like a virus, registry error, or Windows error, we will use our extensive knowledge to rid you of your computer problems.

Happy computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

As a professional computer technician, I always have people describing different problems to me. Due to a lack of details, I often have no idea what they are trying to tell me and that just makes things more difficult for everyone. In light of this, I want to help you describe your issues to a technician.

Here are a few things to consider when thinking about how to describe a technical problem.

1. How often does it happen? Timing can be a big help when trying to figure out what is causing a problem.
2. How long has the problem existed? This could signal a change to your system that can be removed or fixed. Maybe a new program was installed or a new PC was added to the network.
3. Can you reproduce the problem at will or is it random? If it seems random, it is harder to find. If it can be reproduced by following a series of actions, that narrows down the issue quite quickly.
4. Is there an Error Message? If there is, please note exactly what it says, not just the color. The color tells us very little except for the fact that there was an error. The message will usually tell us at least something about the error.
5. What caused the error to occur? If you had just opened or closed a program and the error appeared, odds are the problem is with that program.
6. Are there any common factors that make it happen? For example, does it only happen when you’re connected to the Internet or when you change your speaker volume?
7. Has someone else or another company worked on your computer? Believe it or not, computer technicians often have their own ways of doing things and if we know the other technician, we may know what programs they use and how they do their work.

These are just a few ideas to help you communicate with your computer technician. The more details you can give him or her, the less time it will take them and the less you spend. Being more exact can save you money.

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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