G1 Exchange/Outlook Integration

My dad bought a TMobile G1 phone (the new Google Android phone). When I arrived at his house for Thanksgiving dinner, he proposed a deal: he would hang the Christmas lights on my house if I would figure out how to integrate (he didn't use that word, of course) his phone with his Outlook contacts, calendar, and email. Thinking I was certainly getting the easier end of this deal, I quickly accepted. Well, before I explain how I did it, let me just say that he finished about 2 hours before I did.

Furthermore, there isn't really a way to sync contacts (yet). Anyway, here is what I did:

First, I had to configure the Exchange server at his office for IMAP (good thing I manage his office's network). Turned IMAP on, opened the port through the firewall, and added the account on the phone. Easy.

Second, I started searching a way to sync the calendar. After much searching and contemplating, I finally decided to create a GMail account for him and use Google's Calendar Sync. No, it won't sync in real-time if his laptop isn't on, but no big deal. Moving on...

Ok, here I searched and tried everything. Maybe Plaxo? No, it's only a one-way snyc to Gmail. Tried SynContact, which looked promissing, but it kept bombing on me and I never could get it work work. Ultimately, I had to manually create a CSV of his contacts from Outlook and import them into Gmail. Fortunately, Google has released their contacts API, so hopfully someone will write something soon. If you come across this article and have any better ideas, I'm all ears.

Josh Phillips
www.provisionit.com

Recover WPA Key from Keychain

Today I had the need to discover what the WPA key was that I had entered into my OSX keychain. Here were the steps:

1. Applications
2. Utilities
3. Keychain Access
4. System (top left; defaults to login)
5. Found the SSID of key that I was trying to recover and double-click
6. Select the Show Password checkbox
7. Enter your admin password.

Enjoy.

Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

Installing SBS 2003 SP2

Last week I came across the first instance where I had to install SBS 2003 that had no Service Packs integrated, and had to get up to the latest Service Pack (SP2). All previous installs I've done, either SP1 is integrated in the SBS 2003 media, or SP1 had already been installed and I was just installing to the latest SP2. The question I had was, "Can I go straight to SP2, or do I have to first install SP1 and all the associated SBS specific SPs?"

Well, after some googling, I cam across the the SBS SP1 article here, but this doesn't address jumping from no SP to SP2.

So, since I couldn't find any articles that specifically answered my questions, I decided to give it a try in this order (after installing SBS 2003 and getting all the drivers installed):

1. Server 2003 SP1
2. Exchange SP2
3. Sharepoint Services SP3
4. XP SP2 Client Deployment
5. SBS 2003 SP1
6. Server 2003 SP2

Then, I followed the article here to address known issues with SBS 2003 and SP2, and I was up and running (basically just ran Microsoft Update to install post SP2 updates for SBS 2003).

Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

Scheduling Defrag in XP

The Windows XP Disk Defragmenter tool is located in the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), thus making it impossible to schedule a regular defragmenting session using the Windows XP Task Scheduler. However, there is a command line version of this utility (Defrag.exe), that you can schedule. To do so, you must create a batch file that runs Defrag.exe along with the appropriate parameters, and then create a schedule to run this batch file.

To run Defrag from the batch file, use the following command line:

Defrag x: [/parameter]

In this command, x is the drive letter of the hard disk you want to defragment, and parameter is one of three optional settings that you can use to configure Defrag:
# /a: Analyzes the volume and displays a summary of the analysis report.
# /v: Displays the complete analysis and defragmentation reports. Can be used in combination with /a to display only the analysis report.
# /f: Forces defragmentation of the volume regardless of whether it needs to be defragmented.

Here's how to schedule the Disk Defragmenter:

1. Launch Notepad.
2. Type the appropriate Defrag command line.
3. Save the file as Defragger.bat.
4. Go to Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Scheduled Tasks.
5. Launch the Scheduled Task Wizard by double-clicking Add Scheduled Task.
6. Click Next and select Defragger.bat.
7. In the following three screens, select the Weekly or Monthly option, the time that you want to defragment your hard disk, and then type a username and password with Administrative privileges.
8. Click Finish.

Your computer will regularly run the defrag batch operation to help keep your Windows XP system running smoothly.


Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

svchost.exe problem still lingering

By now you may have already heard of this issue. It's been a long standing problem with Windows XP, and has recently been complicated by the new Windows Live Messenger update. If you've noticed that your computer is very slow, and further that the processor seems to be pegged at 100% utilization, you may be a victim.

Scott Dunn at WindowsSecrets.com has a very informative article explains how you can troubleshoot your own system to determine if you have fallen prey to this issue. Click here for the article.


Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

Vista not any more secure than XP

Well, CRN has done a test. Here is the bottom line:

-----START SNIP-----
Based on the Test Center's findings, businesses that migrate their Windows PCs from XP to Vista will get a slightly more secure OS. But as the Finjan reports showed, Vista's security remains wafer thin.

In the end, both the Vista and the XP test notebooks were almost equally damaged by viruses, trojans and other malware. And because most of the Web sites in the test were able to exploit Vista's weaknesses, Internet users are just about equally vulnerable with both OSes.
-----END SNIP-----

Click here for the full article.

Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com

Imaging Lenovo Desktops

We were setting up some Lenovo 3000 J Series desktops for a customer, and had quite a time imaging them. Got the first one setup, then attempted to image to the others. Began getting the following error when we would boot the newly imaged disk:

-----START SNIP-----
verifying DMI pool data

There as been a signature failure
-----END SNIP-----

Turns out that the IBM Rescue and Recovery stuff (Client Security) didn't like the way we imaged, and/or the fact that we ran sysprep before imaging. After messing around with a lot of different stuff, finally found that if we started up Ghost with the "Image Boot" switch (ghost.exe -ib) and then did a disk-to-disk image, everything worked correctly.


Josh Phillips
ProVisionIT™
www.provisionit.com