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Problem with Direct Access and Vodafone 3G/HSDPA – Update. SEP is the problem

I found the source of our Direct Access problems back in May during a lull period at work. Sorry for not updating then guys…

Here’s a link to my previous Direct Access post

I had a suspicion our anti-virus may have been causing our Direct Access problem so I went ahead and removed Symantec Endpoint Protection using CleanWipe which you can find here

I’m not that big a fan of Symantec as we had problems with our previous generation of PC’s – we suspected it was causing random out of the blue power downs of some PC’s while users were working. We could never prove it though as no event viewer logs were recorded just before the PC’s powered down unexpectedly. Luckily we’ve not had any problems of this type on our current generation of PC’s – they do have a new version of SEP installed though! In hindsight I should have tried removing SEP to test with Direct Access sooner in light of my previous experience with Symantec.

Anyway – Back to Direct Access. Once SEP was uninstalled with MS Security Essentials replacing it – Direct Access started behaving as it should on our laptops over a HSDPA/3G connection, and I didn’t have to run the “netsh interface 6to4 set state disabled” command  indicated in my previous post anymore.

I then decided to do  some more digging on the subject once I realised SEP was causing the problem and found this little nugget from a Symantec forum post.

So if you’re thinking about deploying Direct Access and have SEP deployed you have three choices:

1. Wait for the SEP update to come out in August 2012.

2. Uninstall SEP and replace with an antivirus that works with Direct Access (might be workable if you’ve only a small group of users that need to use Direct Access) i.e. replace AV for that group and leave the others with SEP.

3. Create a batch file that will run the “netsh interface 6to4 set state disabled” on start up on each laptop.

Hope this helps guys

 

Firefox crashing

If you’re having problems with Firefox crashing on your PC – the most likely culprit is Flash.

You’ll need the latest version of the Adobe’s Flash Plugin which you can find here:

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

If the install fails using the above link the most likely reason is that your proxy/firewall is stopping the online installer from downloading the required install files.

In that case try downloading and installing from here (hopefully you have local admin privileges on your PC):

http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/current/support/install_flash_player.exe

 

An automated WordPress update has failed to complete – please attempt the update again now.

I had some problems installing the updated version of JetPack (1.4.2) to my hosted WordPress blog a few days ago.

I tried the automatic install using the “Update Now” button but that failed and I got this error message under my dashboard after reloading/refreshing the admin page.

“An automated WordPress update has failed to complete – please attempt the update again now.”

The progress page you normally see when installing plugin’s would just stall for a long time and would not respond.

Not sure if the problem itself is specific to GoDaddy hosting but all I did to get JetPack to install properly was to deactivate the plugin temporarily then retry with a new install.

Don’t worry it won’t kill your previously accumulated stats!

Thought I’d share the above trouble-shooting tip as I haven’t found any guidance for this problem that recommends deactivating JetPack first.

Good Luck!

 

Microsoft Surface

Surface

Some very interesting news from Microsoft has just been released in the past couple of days. They’ll be dropping an own branded tablet/slate device called Surface in the next couple of months around the Windows 8/Windows Phone 8 release time-frame.

Here’s a very slick video they’ve released for the Surface device.

Surface is primarily a tablet but it’s also got a very thin detachable keyboard/trackpad (which also acts as the screen cover) and an integrated kickstand so it can be used on a table to do some serious web browsing or some real work even!

I was also impressed by a recent Microsoft patent filing for a combined data/power cable connector. It’s not been confirmed whether this new type of data/power connector will be used in the Surface device but it’s certainly a possibility.

Along with an Intel i5 Core Processor which should support dual wireless displays (via WIDI) this tablet looks like a very interesting proposition.

A Start Menu on each dual screen – Actual Multiple Monitors

This is one for the Windows dual screen users out there.

I found this app just today but it seems to be working a treat.

If you’re a dual screen user you know only a single task bar can be displayed in Windows even though you have access to two screens.

Well not any more. Actual Multiple Monitors takes care of the above shortcoming (at least until Win8 comes out) by displaying a Start Menu on each monitor, each with their own set of windows so you can minimize or maximize to either monitor. How cool is that?

Actual Multiple Monitors

 

Problem with Direct Access and Vodafone 3G/HSDPA

I’ve been testing Microsoft’s Direct Access at work.

In my opinion it’s a true VPN killer, if you only need to deal with Windows Technology in your workplace.

Direct Access uses certificate/IPSEC based encryption/authentication to authorise a remote user and allow them to access a corporate network. The key thing here though is that the remote user doesn’t interact with any software to authenticate. The user’s authenticated without any action on their part – all they need to do is insert their username and password at the login screen much like you would if you were logging onto a terminal in the office.

No more fumbling around with a VPN dongle – if you have a broadband connection you can login and access network resources at the office from home.

I have noticed some problems using Direct Access with a Vodafone 3G/HSDPA connection though so I’d like to share what I did to get the service to work because it can be a pain in the butt to trouble shoot and the advanced diagnostic logs can be hard to decipher.

Firstly make sure you’re using the latest version of your Vodafone Mobile Broadband software (formerly called Vodafone Mobile Connect). I use version 10.2.302. Type “Vodafone Mobile Broadband Software” into Google and your first hit should take you to a page with the latest version. It’s important you get the latest version installed – I initially tried Vodafone Mobile Connect 9.4.6.20539 and couldn’t get Direct Access working no matter what.

The second part of the puzzle is 6to4. I had to completely disable this virtual adapter to force Direct Access to make a connection via Teredo. My suspicion (and this only seems to be a problem with mobile broadband connections) is that Direct Access doesn’t auto-configure the 6to4 adapter address properly and as a result Direct Access doesn’t fail over to any other connection type if it can’t communicate with the 6to4 adapter.

So start a CMD prompt with “Run as administrator” – as below. It’s important you start the CMD prompt with “Run as administrator” as a domain user even with local admin privileges will not be sufficient.

Once you have the CMD prompt up use the following command to disable 6to4:

netsh interface 6to4 set state disabled

And Direct Access should miraculously connect

The following command will take you back to where you started:

netsh interface 6to4 set state enabled

 

 

 

 

Have fun – I hope this helps you out of any Direct Access problems you may be having

Seagate GoFlex Satellite Mobile Wireless Storage

I’ve been lazy with my blog for a while now. Now that I’ve gotten a chance to refocus on it I thought why not take a look at some of the coolest toys with a geek slant out there right now.

As you may know – I absolutely hate wires…I would’ve thought by 2012 they would’ve been consigned to the dustbin of progress.

But it does look like the electronic engineers out there need a few more years to fully develop the technology to support high speed data transfer and power wirelessly. However great strides have been made and since I like to highlight technology I see as really cool and not getting enough of the spotlight it deserves I thought I’d post a blog update on the Seagate GoFlex Satellite™ Mobile Wireless Storage hard disk.

Seagate GoFlex Satellite™ Mobile Wireless Storage

The drives main selling point is it’s wireless capability but you can also purchase an interface attachment to give you USB 3.0 connectivity if the need arises.

How to block spam comments being posted on your blog

MollomI installed Mollom on my hosted WordPress blog yesterday to take care of the endless amount of spam comments I receive daily.

So far it seems to be working quite well, the only drawback I’ve encountered is that you cannot verify Molloms disposing of valid or invalid spam comments since there’s no dashboard to view the trashed comments themselves. Therefore you must have complete faith in Molloms spam detection and that it’s not shooting down friendlies…

The install though carried off without a hitch right into my hosted wordpress – and so far it’s detected and trashed numerous spam comments.

The Blog of Martin Birrane