At the office we have two available networks: An internal network with our servers that also has filtered internet and an external wifi network that just offers unfiltered internet.

The main issue is that, as an IT tech, I download a lot of large files that can slow down our network, so I often found myself using a laptop on our external wifi downloading items so that I don’t slow internal people down.

My goal was to have two network connections on my Windows 7 PC, one wired internal connection and one a wifi external connection. I also want my internet traffic to go over my wifi connection but at the same time any have the ability to access all the internal sources.

A warning before I start: Doing this incorrectly can open a giant security hole in your network, please don’t do it without the approval of your IT dept.

First, I simply hooked up both network connections and tested them both (by only plugging one in at a time and checking the internet) as fully functional.

Once both are functional you need to edit your routing table so the correct requests go over the correct network adapter.

You can do this via the command line, but I found the Nirsoft NetRouteView utility to make this whole process a whole bunch easier.

Download and extract the NetRouteView utility. Then if on Windows 7, right click the NetRouteView.exe file and select “Run as Administrator”.

NetRouteView with two connections

Click the “Interface Name” column title to sort your entries by interface like above.

Depending on your network only one or two changes should be made. First, you need to remove the 0.0.0.0 entry from your internal network. That entry is a “catch all”. We want the catch all on the outside network and not the inside. So remove 0.0.0.0 from your internal adapter and make sure its already there on your external connection.

For most people that should be it! But for me I had to add one entry to my internal network to get it to work. I wanted the whole 192.0.0.0 (that means anything that has a 192 for its first number in it’s IP address) to go on my internal network connection. So I added the following:

Adding a route

Thats it! To check that everything is going over the correct interface I added the Network Traffic gadget to my Windows 7 desktop twice (just drag it to the desktop twice from the gadget list). I made my internal connection red and my external connection green.

Network Traffic with two connections

Now I can watch as I view a web page which adapter it’s going out.

When attempting to print these PDFs users would get a “The Document could not be printed.” pop-up followed by “The Document could not be printed.”

Interestingly I found that in most cases the issue occurred when the PDF was being viewed embedded in Internet Explorer. In some cases If I saved the offending PDF to desktop and then opened it, it would print without issue.

The solution I’ve come across was to replace the drivers of our HP 1320 printers from the PCL 6 drivers to the HP universal drivers. For us, that resolved all printing problems.

I’ve read on the Adobe forums that the issue is related to gibberish hidden characters added when someone adds text to a PDF from something other than an Adobe product. Something like Microsoft Word.

I’d be interested if anyone could come up with a “true” fix, as my solution sounds sort of like a work around.

PDF file creation failed.

The error did not not usually occur if only a single document was scanned and saved. However, If two documents are scanned and saved back to back, this error was likely to occur at the start of the second document. Internet searches yielded nothing, but after contacting Fujitsu support, we came to a solution.

The error stems from the fact that ScanSnap Manager defaults to saving scans into the My Pictures folder. At our offices all users have their My Documents folders redirected via Group Policy to a network share. Apparently ScanSnap is sensitive to any delay when it attempts to write the scanned PDF files to disk.

The solution is to change the scan path to something other than a network share.

The steps:

Right click the ScanSnap icon and select the Scan Button Settings… option.

Select Scan Button Settings

Then, if necessary, expand the window to show all the options for each setting. Then go to the Save tab and change the Image Saving folder to something other than a network share.

Change the Image Saving folder location.

That quickly resolved the errors we were receiving.

Changing an adapter to DHCP remotely

First you’ll need the VBScript file. Copy and paste the following into Notepad. Assuming you want this to execute on both Windows 7 and Windows XP clients, the only line you need to edit is line 31, “subnets = Array(“192.168.1.0″)” and change the 192.168.1.0 to the network that you’d like this file to execute on.

EnableDHCP.vbs

'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Script Name : EnableDHCP.vbs
'Author   : Matthew Beattie
'Created   : 29/12/10
'Description : This script enables DHCP for systems on specified subnets.
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Initialization Section  
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Option Explicit  
Dim objFSO, wshShell, wshNetwork, hostName
On Error Resume Next
 Set objFSO   = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")   
 Set wshNetwork = Wscript.CreateObject("Wscript.Network")  
 Set wshShell  = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")  
 hostName    = wshNetwork.ComputerName
 ProcessScript
 If Err.Number <> 0 Then
 Wscript.Quit  
 End If
On Error Goto 0
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Name    : ProcessScript -> Primary Function that controls all other script processing.  
'Parameters : None     ->  
'Return   : None     ->  
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Function ProcessScript
 Dim ipAddress, macAddress, product, systems, system
 Dim subnets, subnet, network, continue
 product = ReadRegistry("HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProductName")
 systems = Array("Windows XP","Windows 7")
 subnets = Array("192.168.1.0")
 '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 'Ensure this script only applies to client operating systems. (Don't configure servers with DHCP!)
 '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Continue = False
 For Each system In systems
 If InStr(1, product, system, vbTextCompare) <> 0 Then
 continue = True
 Exit For
 End If
 Next
 If Not continue Then
 Exit Function
 End If
 '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 'Enumerate the IP and MAC Addresses from the local system.
 '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 If Not GetIPConfig(hostName, ipAddress, macAddress) Then
 Exit Function
 End If
 '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 'Ensure the script continues processing only if the systems IP address is within the specified subnets.
 '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 network = Left(ipAddress, InStrRev(ipAddress, ".")) & "0"
 continue = False
 For Each subnet In subnets
 If StrComp(subnet, network, vbTextCompare) = 0 Then
 continue = True
 Exit For
 End If
 Next
 '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 'Ensure the script only continues processing if the systems IP address is within the specified subnets.
 '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 If Not continue Then
 Exit Function
 End If
 '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 'The system is within one of the specified subnets. Enable DHCP on all enabled interfaces that have static IP Addresses.
 '-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 If Not EnableDHCP Then
 Exit Function
 End If
End Function
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Name    : ReadRegistry -> Read the value of a registry key or value.
'Parameters : key     -> Name of the key (ending in "\") or value to read.
'Return   : ReadRegistry -> Value of key or value read from the local registry (blank is not found).
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Function ReadRegistry(ByVal key)
 Dim result
 If StrComp (Left (key, 4), "HKU\", vbTextCompare) = 0 Then
 Key = "HKEY_USERS" & Mid (key, 4)
 End If
 On Error Resume Next
 ReadRegistry = WshShell.RegRead (key)
 If Err.Number <> 0 Then
 ReadRegistry = ""
 End If
 On Error Goto 0
End Function
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Name    : GetIPConfig -> Enumerates the IP & MAC Address of the system via WMI
'Parameters : hostName  -> String containing the hostname of the computer to enumerate the IP configuration for.
'      : ipAddress  -> Input/Output : Variable assigned to the IP Address of the system.
'Parameters : macAddress -> Input/Output : Variable assigned to the MAC Address of the system.
'Return   : GetIPConfig -> Returns True and the systems IP & MAC Address if successful otherwise returns False.
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Function GetIPConfig(hostName, ipAddress, macAddress)
 Dim wmi, ipConfig, query
 GetIPConfig = False
 ipAddress  = ""
 macAddress = ""
 query    = "select * from Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration where IPEnabled = True"
 On Error Resume Next
 Set wmi = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & hostName & "\root\cimv2")
 If Err.Number <> 0 Then
 Exit Function
 End If
 For Each ipConfig in wmi.ExecQuery(query)
 If Err.Number <> 0 Then
 Exit Function
 End If
 ipAddress = ipConfig.IPAddress(0)
 macAddress = ipConfig.MACAddress(0)
 If ipAddress <> "" And ipAddress <> "0.0.0.0" And MACAddress <> "" Then
 Exit For
 End If
 Next
 On Error Goto 0
 GetIPConfig = True
End Function
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Name    : EnableDHCP -> enables DHCP on all interfaces that have static IP Addresses.
'Parameters : hostName  -> String containing the hostname of the system to enable DHCP on.
'Return   : EnableDHCP -> Returns True if DHCP was enabled otherwise False.
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Function EnableDHCP
 Dim query, wmi, adapter, adapters, result
 EnableDHCP = False
 query   = "Select * From Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration Where DHCPEnabled = False And IPEnabled = True"
 On Error Resume Next
 Set wmi   = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & hostName & "\root\cimv2")
 Set adapters = wmi.ExecQuery(query)
 For Each adapter In adapters
 result = adapter.EnableDHCP()
 Next
 If Err.Number <> 0 Then
 Exit Function
 End If
 On Error Goto 0
 EnableDHCP = True
End Function
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Executing Manually on Remote Machines

For simplicity, place the previous EnableDHCP.vbs file either in your root C:\ or on a file share.

Download and install PsTools available here. Once installed launch a command prompt. Change to the PsTools directory with the following command:
cd \pstools

The following assumes your account has administrative privlidges on both the local and remote machine and you’ve saved the vbs file locally to C:\

Execute the file on the remote machine with the following command:
psexec \\<RemoteComputerNameOrIP> cscript \\<LocalComputerName>\C$\EnableDHCP.vbs

If you need to specify a remote administrator user use the following command:
psexec \\<RemoteComputerNameOrIP> -u <RemoteAdmin> cscript \\<LocalComputerName>\C$\EnableDHCP.vbs

The command will not execute cleanly because (obviously) your computer is going to lose its network connection to the other computer while it changes to DHCP.

You must invoke cscript to execute the command as by default .vbs files will not execute remotely.

Executing via Group Policy

(I’m not responsible if you screw up your domain)

Save the EnableDHCP.vbs to a file share location that allows everyone to read.

If you don’t already have your computers segregated into Organizational Units, create a new OU and Create and link a new Group Policy to it.
Right click your domain > click New Organizational Unit > right click the OU you just created> click Create a GPO in this Domain, and Link it here. > name it something useful like “Enable DHCP” > Drag computers into the new OU

The best time to run this script, in my opinion, is going to be during computer startup. Edit the Group Policy you previously created to launch the script.
Right click the previously created Policy > Edit > expand Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Scripts > double click Startup > click Add > click Browse > find the script > click OK a couple of times

That should do it!

Personally, because of the way we have some things set to start, I’m using a combination of psLoggedon to find computers that noone is logged into, then executing the script on those computers. Please always test on a non production computer before you start making big changes like this.

Setting FF4's Tabs to Always be in the Title Bar

We need to add a couple of lines to your userChrome.css file. The userChrome.css file is located in the following locations:

XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\chrome\
Vista\7: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\chrome\

Open that file in Notepad or another text editor and add the following lines to it:

@namespace url(“http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul”);

#main-window[sizemode=normal][tabsontop="true"] #toolbar-menubar[autohide="true"] {
margin-top:-20px;
margin-left:80px;
}
#main-window[sizemode=normal] #navigator-toolbox[tabsontop="true"] > #toolbar-menubar[autohide="true"] ~ #TabsToolbar {
-moz-padding-start:80px!important;
-moz-padding-end:110px!important;
}
#appmenu-button{
padding-left: 8px !important;
padding-right: 8px !important;
height: 22px !important;
}

You’ll also need to set FireFox to always display the tab bar (Options > Tabs > Always show the tab bar) so as not to cause issues when only a single tab is open.

Most credit for this version goes to sdrocking with this post as UserStyles.org

Preparing Users Data for the Network

The first step is to copy a users Data folder onto a network share. The location of the share should be the same for all users. For example; each of our users has a “home” drive mapped to H: where they store their personal documents. Under this drive we have a folder titled “lotus” that we place a copy of the contents of their Data folder.

After you’ve copied the contents to the network share, you’ll need to edit the users notes.ini file thats located within that share. The line you’ll need to change in that file is “Directory=C:\…” change it to the location where you’ve copied their data. In my situation I change that line to “Directory=H:\lotus”

Redirecting Lotus to Look in the Network Share

Now that we have our user data in a network location, we need to tell lotus to look there and not in the usual Data folder location. There are a couple of methods to do this. First is using a registry entry and the second is actually editing the shortcuts. In my experience the shortcut method has been much more reliable.

Registry method:
For each user add the following registry entry (maybe as part of a log on script)
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Lotus\Notes\8.0] “NotesIniPath”=”H:\\lotus\\notes.ini”

Redirecting via the Registry

Shortcut method:
Edit the shortcuts on the all users desktop and the start menu so the target line is as follows (quotation marks and all)
“C:\(Install location of Lotus Notes)\notes.exe” “=h:\lotus\notes.ini”

Redirecting via Editing Shortcuts

Some Notes (Get it?!)

Currently on Windows 7 I do a Single User Install of the Standard Client. I’ve found that if I do a multi-user install I get prompted for my ID password for ntaskldr.exe. Googling has not returned a way to correct this.

While this modification does allow users to roam between computers, they can not have more than one instance of Notes open at a time.

After you’ve successfully got Notes functioning redirected you can delete the Data directory from the local machine. As long as your redirects are in place, it will never be recreated.

My users are not administrators on their machines. A single user install by default stores the users Data folder in the Program Files directory, which a user can’t write to. But since we’re redirecting that folder to a writeable location the users never have any permission issues.

The "Enter Selects" FireFox Add-On

The enter selects add-on doesn’t truly auto-fill the remainder of the the URL bar. Instead it simply selects the first suggested awesomebar result for whatever you’ve typed. The end result is the same. A quick “g, enter” gets me to Google, “l, enter” gets me to lifehacker, “j, enter” gets me to Jalopnik. I know I could have set up some tags on my bookmark entries, but this is a much more effective method that changes over time as the sites I visit change.

Another entry goes on my FireFox must have extension list.

http://gdgtry.com/2011/01/thinning-down-firefox-4s-tab-bar-2/

My previous post about modifying FireFox 4′s tab bar layout has been one of the more popular posts on my blog. After updating to FF4 Beta 6 the modification broke, but I’ve found a solution:

#navigator-toolbox[tabsontop="true"] #TabsToolbar{
padding-left: 80px !important;
padding-right: 102px !important;
padding-top: 2px !important;
margin-top: -25px !important;
}

#appmenu-button{
padding: 3px 5px 3px 5px !important;
height: 20px !important;
}

As you can see, the only change is we tell the tab bar to move up 25 pixels from where it was. We also ditch the tab position as fixed as it’s not really necessary.

FireFox 4 with a better tab layout

This gets us back to our old style. I haven’t had time to test all the edge cases to see if it messes anything up, but it should get your normal browsing bar back to an acceptable size.

Since I’ve gotten an iPhone 4 I’ve stopped carrying a normal camera with me on outings. I find the iPhone’s camera more than sufficient for most of my photo needs. Many other people are also doing the same. The fun thing about most camera phones now, is that they tag image information with GPS coordinates. Thanks to some easy online tools, you can now track people only by their pictures.

Lets get an example. I did a Google Search for “shots taken with my iPhone” and the first result is a blog with “9 Cracking Shots Taken With My iPhone“. The second picture posted is a pic taken on a road supposedly in Death Valley. Lets see if it is.

A test image for GPS EXIF inforation

We can download a program to view where the photo was taken via its EXIF information. Programs like “Simple EXIF Viewer for Mac OSX” work well. Or you could install a FireFox extension like “EXIF Viewer“, it’s a very nice way to quickly view information for any image embedded on a web page. But both of these seem silly to install when you probably only need to view EXIF info once in a blue moon.

My new favorite way to view where photos were taken is to use online tools like “Jeffery’s EXIF Viewer” or the “Find EXIF” website. So, using our example, we would: Right click the image, Copy Image Location, Paste the image location into one of the online tools. In this example I’ve used Jeffery’s EXIF viewer that embeds a nice little Google Maps pin of where the image says it was taken. Results from the EXIF GPS information

And if you follow the links over to Google Maps, and drop a street view pin as close to GPS data as possible, you get this:

Results from the iPhone's GPS EXIF info

You can view the actual Google Street view location here. Pretty cool.

Dock for the Dell Latitude Series

1. Docks that require your laptop to be open and running to use and use a low performance method of connection. These docks are available for almost any laptop and use a single USB cable to hook up. I really won’t recommend them for a couple of reasons: They’re low performance and they require that the laptop be sitting open and have the laptop screen on when plugged into them. This means if you want to type on your other screen with a real keyboard and mouse, you’ll have to have your laptop sitting out and open on the desk.
2. Docks that have a dedicated port and sit in a cradle. These are high performance and do not require your computer to be open when in use. In addition these docks usually include significantly more connectivity options. This is the type of dock I use every day here at work. I recommend this style over the USB style.

If you want to go with a cradle style dock then that limits your options. There aren’t many 17” laptops compatible with a cradle style of dock. The Dell Latitude laptop series is the best choice at this time. Their larger size laptop has a 15.6” screen.

If you really want a larger computer and don’t mind having your laptop sitting out while docked or just want to skip the dock all together, then you have more options.

Targus Universal USB Dock

USB docks like the the Targus Universal USB Dock allow almost any size and style computer the ability to have a dock.