Cisco::VOIP::Delay establishing call

PROBLEM:
Sometimes it take 5-10 seconds for both parties of a call to hear each other.
This is because the RTP channel comes up after the source router receives a connect message from the destination router. The connect message is sent after the person being called picks up the phone.
FIX:
At the router, input the following:

ROUTER(config)#voice rtp send-recv

This will make all calls establish the voice path in both directions before a connect messagee is received from the dest switch.

Cisco::HyperTerminal::Cut & Paste

FIX for problem pasting a config using HyperTerminal

Pasting a configuration into an IOS device using Hyperterminal gets muddled maybe half way into the config. This is because HyperTerm sends the data too fast for the switch.

This can be fixed by adding a character delay in HyperTerminal:
File > Properties, Settings tab, click ASCII, add character delay of 5 ms

Mail::Internet::Test

E-Mail Testing with Autoresponders

Here is a list of Email Autoresponders. If you send an email to one or more of the addresses listed below you should receive an autoreply in a few minutes.

test@tznet.com Auburndale, WI
test@digiplay.com Chicago, IL
test@toltbbs.com Toledo, OH
test@cshore.com Madison, CT
test@sstar.com Metairie, LA

Windows::Citrix::Event Log

Event 10016 caused by COM component permissions or failure of service account:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;899965&sd=ee

Links::Forensics

Searching and Seizing Computers and Obtaining Electronic Evidence in Criminal Investigations
http://www.cybercrime.gov/s&smanual2002.htm#_IB1_

Very interesting read.

E-Mail::Blackberry::Links

http://www.blackberrycool.com

E-Mail::Blackberry

Version 4.x

Send an e-mail to BES user and include as the first thing in the subject line and the device will answer you back.

Include the tag and it will insert your pin into that message.

Include the tag and it will insert your "owner information" as a signature.

Print jobs that you send to a Windows Server 2003 print queue when the printer is out of paper take a long time after you add paper

WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, turn off SNMP port status for the print queues. To do this, follow these steps:1. Click Start, and then click Printers and Faxes.
2. Right-click the printer, and then click Properties.
3. Click the Ports tab.
4. Click Configure Port.
5. Click to clear the SNMP Status Enabled check box, click OK, and then click Close.

Annoyances.org: "Annoyances.org is the most complete collection of information assembled for and by actual users of Microsoft Windows."

A2Z Computers Inc. 1-800-983-8889: "Teac USB 2.0 TV Tuner - TV input adapter - Hi-Speed USB"

Interesting product. Our AV dept may need to capture training video off dvd on a somewhat regular basis.

The Outlook Find feature and the new mail notifications do not work after you apply Windows XP Service Pack 2

This seems to alleviate a common issue we have wherein if you click your inbox folder it refreshes a bunch of stuff you haven't seen yet, but has arrived minutes before.

CAUSE
This behavior occurs because Outlook uses the user datagram protocol (UDP) to receive new e-mail message notifications, to update folder views, and to perform searches. By default, when you apply Windows XP SP2, it turns on the Windows Firewall. The Windows Firewall blocks the UDP packets that Outlook uses for new e-mail message notifications and for the Find feature.

Because UDP is a connectionless protocol and the Outlook client does not initiate the communication with the server, the Windows Firewall interprets the UDP packets as unsolicited and blocks them.
WORKAROUND
To work around this issue, you must make some configuration changes to the Windows Firewall for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, for Microsoft Outlook 2002, and for Microsoft Outlook 2000 to add the Outlook.exe program to Exceptions list.

For Outlook 2002 and 2000, you must also create a registry key to override the registry key set that is maintained by Windows XP SP2.
For all versions of Outlook
Follow these steps to add the Outlook.exe program to the Exceptions list of your Windows Firewall:1. Click Start, click Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click Windows Firewall.
3. Click Exceptions, and then click Add Program.
4. Locate and then select the Outlook.exe program, and then click Add.

Registry information for Outlook 2002
To turn on RPC Polling in Outlook 2002, Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 1 is required.

Note If Microsoft Office 2000 Service Pack 3 is not applied, Outlook 2000 will ignore the ForcePolling registry key.

You must manually create the following keys to override the ForcePolling registry value that is set by Windows XP SP2. To do this, follow these steps.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click to select the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft
4. On the Edit menu, click Add Key, and then type Office. The class is None.
5. Click the Office key, click the Edit menu, click Add Key, and then type 10.0. The class is None.
6. Click the 10.0 key, click the Edit menu, click Add Key, and then type Outlook. The class is None.
7. Click the Outlook key, click the Edit menu, click Add Key, and then type RPC. The class is None.
8. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then type ForcePolling. The data type is REG_DWORD, and the value is 0.

Registry Information for Outlook 2000
To turn on RPC polling in Outlook 2000, Microsoft Office 2000 Service Pack 3 is required. After the update is applied to the system, you must change the registry. To do this, follow these steps.

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click to select the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft
4. On the Edit menu, click Add Key, and then type Office. The class is None.
5. Click the Office key, click the Edit menu, click Add Key, and then type 9.0. The class is None.
6. Click the 9.0 key, click the Edit menu, click Add Key, and then type Outlook. The class is None.
7. Click the Outlook key, click the Edit menu, click Add Key, and then type RPC. The class is None.
8. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and type ForcePolling. The data type is REG_DWORD, and the value is 0.
Note If Microsoft Office 2000 Service Pack 3 is not applied, Outlook 2002 will ignore the ForcePolling registry key.

MORE INFORMATION
You cannot open a specific external port number on the Windows Firewall to work around this behavior because Outlook assigns the UDP port number dynamically between 1024 and 65535.

When you use the Find feature in Outlook 2003, you do not experience the symptoms that are described in the "Symptoms" section. Outlook 2003 does not use the UDP to perform searches.

Barnes?&?Noble.com - Cisco IOS Access Lists: "Cisco IOS Access Lists"

Mark's Sysinternals Blog: "Mark's Sysinternals Blog"

Active FTP vs. Passive FTP, a Definitive Explanation: "Active FTP vs. Passive FTP, a Definitive Explanation"

Freeware::Utility

The last free versions of PowerArchiver, BCWipe, PrintKey, and SE Maker!
Download older versions of freeware programs that went commercial!: "Freeware programs that either went commercial after these versions or were discontinued, or are hard to find or just plain good"

Windows::Networking::Optimize TCP

SpeedGuide.net :: Download Cable/DSL Speed Patches: "SpeedGuide Programs"

TCP/IP and NBT configuration parameters for Windows XP
PREVENT FRAGMENTATION
set MTU size to the same or lesser than the router along the tracert with the smallest MTU allowed.

Find the smallest MTU allowed in the route by process of elimination using:
ping -l ____ server.domain.com -f

(-l = lower case L and means to use ____ packet size, -f means do not fragment.)

I found:
1413 and greater => "needs fragmented" response
1412 - 1395 => timeout response
1394 and lower => response received.

XCON: Site Connector and RPC Communication Within Sites Over a VPN

How to force Kerberos to use TCP instead of UDP in Windows Server 2003, in Windows XP, and in Windows 2000

Network::Cisco::IOS

I often want to look at how ports are configured on a switch, the descr, what vlan, etc.
"show run | include" type commands don't really help because the port config is on multiple lines.

The following are very useful, if only I could remember them:

show int status
show int summary

Web Conferencing - Video Conferencing - Net Meeting : Raindance
Like WebEx.

Perl::Whitespace

$line =~ s/^\s+//; is supposed to get rid of all whitespace characters at the beginning of a line. I have been messing around for white a bit now scratching my head about why this is not working for me.

Finally I open the text file "as binary" to see the HEX codes for each character and I find that the "spaces" at the beginning of this line of my data file are NULL, that is "ASCII code" = zero.

So, NULL must not be defined in Perl as "whitespace." I assume it will only match the "blank" characters that have their own special escape character like \t \n and "space" (ASCII 32, HEX 20.)

Well I replaced s/^\s+//; with s/^\x00+//; and life is now good.....

If you read this (and I know at least a few of you are out there) leave me a comment if you can confirm what Perl defines as "whitespace" when matching on \s.

Windows XP::Task Scheduler::Network

Trying to get a "listener" program to run at startup from task scheduler. (this thing won't run as a service after all the messing around I've done trying that.)
Scheduler is acting weird on this imaged machine. It is not allowing me to "browse" to an EXE it only presents the registered applications. I can drag an EXE onto it but it won't let me edit the command line or input a "startup folder" which is blank and greyed out. And it just plain won't work.
After a long day I finally have it:
- got JT.EXE from Microsoft -- very user un-friendly. ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/reskit/win2000/jt.zip

- found JTRUN.VBS that provides a more usable front end to JT.EXE at http://www.windowsitpro.com/WindowsScripting/Article/ArticleID/45148/45148.html

- modified and used the above to create a task on that machine with the correct startup folder. (My listener reads a parameter file from the current directory to determine what port to listen on.)
- setup the task to run logged on as a user with appropriate domain and local permissions.
- made exception in XP firewall for the listener. This allowed access locally, but not remotely. I actually had to make a port exception for that incoming port. I think this is because the listener forks a process to listen on the port. (this allows it to have more than one subsequent connection instead of closing down after a single connect session.) And I think the firewall exception is somehow now applying to the child process of the same name.

Setting up fax server with Brooktrout TR1034+P8H-T1-1N to receive faxes through TN464F DS1 board in Avaya Definity (has an amphenol connection.)

1. Brooktrout support said that Avaya sells a cable that would meet our needs. But Brooktrout did not know the current part number.
It is a 4 or 8 conductor cable that is amphenol on one end and RJ45/RJ48 on the other pairing 1&2 and 4&5
I believe we will need such a cable that is 25 ft long.
I was unable to find a part number in the short search I did.

2. Brooktrout support noted that a TA120 CSU pack is not necessary and will interfere.

3. Also Brooktrout support noted the settings that the fax board is looking for on the phone system side:
PRI configuration
The PBX should be the T1 clock master
Framing = ESF
Line Coding = BZ8S
Signalling = 5ESS, protocol=NI2
Channel 24 should be the D channel.
Channel 1-8 should be active for bidirectional communication
Channel 9-23 should be disabled/inactive
Incoming calls should start on port 8 and hunt backwards to port 1
On a call collision or Glare: the phone system should yield

Wi-Finally: Security that works: "The security of Wi-Fi has largely been a joke. Wireless vendors have routinely shipped their products with all of their security features turned off, rather than take support calls from end users when things didn't work. Fortunately, the pieces are now in place for you to have safe and secure Wi-Fi networking, wherever you may roam."

Outlook::Exchange::Network

Problem
Outlook uses UDP for messages notices. If there is filtering or errors sending the UDP packets Outlook may not refresh the new messages on your client until you click another folder or something to force a refresh.
Information
The Outlook Find feature and the new mail notifications do not work after you apply Windows XP Service Pack 2: "To turn on RPC Polling in Outlook 2002"

Ground loop problems and how to get rid of them: "Ground loop problems and how to get rid of them"

Grounding and Bonding Datacom Systems: "Telecommunications main grounding busbar (TMGB). The TMGB is the dedicated extension of the building grounding electrode system for the datacom infrastructure. Because it's the central attachment point for TBBs and equipment, it should have easy access by datacom personnel.
The TMGB is a predrilled copper bus bar with standard NEMA bolt-hole sizing and spacing for the particular lug connection used. It should be large enough to satisfy today's applications and accommodate future growth. The TMGB should have a minimum thickness of 6 mm and width of 100 mm. You'll find varieties of ground bars available, and some come as a kit you can customize to meet specific requirements of the application. Pre-welded exothermic pigtails are available in a variety of conductor sizes and lengths, insulated or bare, ready for your attachment to the building ground.
Electrotin plating results in reduced resistance. However, you must completely clean any mating surfaces if they're not plated. If you have datacom panelboards located with the TMGB, you must bond the alternating current equipment ground bus (or metallic enclosure) of each to the TMGB/TGB. Make sure you maintain appropriate clearances when locating TMGBs as close as possible to the panelboards."

USB 1.1, USB 2.0, Firewire 1394a, Firewire 1394b (Firewire 800) Comparison Chart: "USB 2.0
USB 1.1, USB 2.0, and Firewire Comparison Chart:
Max. Burst Transfer Rate

USB 1.1	USB 2.0	FireWire 1394a	FireWire 1394b
12 Mb/s	480 Mb/s	400 Mb/s	800 Mb/s

USB 2.0 - Capacities
Maximum cable length (USB 2.0): 5 meters
Maximum cable length (USB 1.1): 3 meters
Maximum hubs connected in series: 5
Maximum devices connected in series: 127
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface connects computers to mice, digital cameras, scanners, printers, handhelds, and other peripherals.

USB 2.0, available on desktop computers and on laptops, raises the data-transfer speed from 12 Mbps to 480 Mbps and brings the technology to the most demanding peripherals, such as camcorders, portable CD-RW drives, or external hard drives.

Most new mainstream PCs have at least one USB 2.0 port, which lets you connect not only dozens of new USB 2.0 devices but also the thousands of USB 1.1 devices on the market. Connecting a USB 1.1 device to a USB 2.0 port, however, will still yield a maximum througHPut of only 12 Mbps."

Sharepoint::Firewall

Using Sharepoint for an Extranet
Download details: SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Document: Deploying on an Extranet by Using ISA Server 2000 and ISA Server 2004: "how to deploy Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 across an extranet"

MS Office::Metadata

Download details: Office 2003/XP Add-in: Remove Hidden Data: "permanently remove hidden data and collaboration data, such as change tracking and comments, from Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint files"

Storage::Exchange::Modeling Exchange 2003 Storage Design Requirements

Microsoft Storage Calculator

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c6084d20-9730-4ffc-805d-b957327604c6&displaylang=en

Storage::Exchange::SAN::Storage Design for Clustered MS Exchange

How Microsoft IT Does Storage Design

Very good discussion of storage design for Microsoft's consolidated worldwide Exchange deployment.

Webcast (requires registration):http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=2303373

Outlook::Name Completion

Issues with Outlook XP/2002 name completion.
This is the kind of stuff I normally just tell people "This gets corrupt occasionally and it must be deleted and recreated." Which is the truth - that is Microsoft's official answer. In the outlook profile directory, delete the *.NK2 file and the name completion cache will start again fresh.
However there are some people that this answer cannot be given to. So I've spent a good amount of time recently messing around with OL name completion. In my travels I found that there is a utility that will actually edit this file. (If you are interested it is named Owtlook and you can google search for it's name or NK2 file and get a million hits because some guy named Randy has lurked in every news group and forum on Outlook and replied to every poor soul who has problems with Outlook name completion. Even getting into fights with people who pass along the true Microsoft answer I stated above.)
I have also found a possible bug in Outlook name completion behavior: The NK2 file is written upon closing Outlook. This doesn't appear to happen if I logout or restart my computer without first closing down Outlook. So if I have no NK2 file, open outlook and populate some addresses in the cache and restart my computer then no NK2 file is created. And if I have an NK2 file and run Outlook and add names to this cache, those entries aren't written to the NK2.
Strange......
I am running:
Outlook XP/2002 SP3 (from Office XP Professional.)
Windows XP SP2

Wireless::Product::Opinion

Speaking of Wireless Bridges

I have a 802.11B wireless LAN. I tried out the NetGear ME100 wireless 802.11B bridge. I had a very bad experience with the online vendor I bought it from on Amazon and with Netgear tech support.

I own some good NetGear products and thought this purchase would be no different. After a couple hours on the phone with tech support he finally told me the product was defective and to return it to my vendor. I do. My vendor claims to test it out and it works just fine. I say "if the manufacturer's rep tells me the product is defective and to return it, the product must be defective." They ask for my support incident number. I lookup my support incident on the web and all I see there is it is under category of "possible parameter misconfiguration" and no notes at all about our telephone conversation. If that causes me to pay a 20% restocking fee or not get refund at all I will never buy another NetGear product again.

I *can* report that I drove to an actual store and bought a Linksys WET11 bridge and it was up and running 60 minutes later (including my drive home...)

I have yet to see any money back from the online vendor. And every reply e-mail I get from them is from a different e-mail domain. Good grief!

Telecom::Long Distance

How can I tell who my long distance provider is?

Dial 1-700-555-4141 for LD provider for international, interstate, and intrastat interLATA calling.

Dial 1-AAA-700-4141 for LD provider for intraLATA calling to the AAA area code.

Long Distance Carrier 1010 CODES: "1010333 works for video conferencing."

AT&T & BellSouth appear to block "data" calls.

MSIIS::Perl::Script::Fix Perl IIS Script Mapping

After installing ActiveState Perl script mapping still didn't work for me on WinXP.

I found this fix.

Freeware::Tools::TreePad::Conversion

Treepad is a great freeware version of the best Outliner utility I have used.

Unfortunately the export to HTML leaves something to be desired.

I've created a little utility that will take the Treepad (HJT) file and create an HTML document from it.

You can download it here

Perl::Compile::Package::PAR

As a follow up on my prior posts:

May 2004

Apr 2003

PAR is excellent tool to package Perl scripts, the Perl interpreter, and any modules your script is dependent on into an EXE file. My biggest pain in the past has been to get PAR installed. Well I went through the pain again the past couple days and found a much more foolproof method, if you already have Perl properly installed and supporting PPM module installation. (e.g. download and run the MSI from www.activestate.com)

The following will install PAR and all the modules it depends on:

ppm install http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm/PAR.ppd

Windows::Tip

Append to Windows Clipboard
I thought I knew all the useful Windows keyboard shortcuts. But it turns out I don't really know as much as I thought ;)

You can append to data in the Windows clipboard by pressing SHIFT+CTRL+C

How marvelous!

Cisco - Troubleshooting Cisco Catalyst Switches to NIC Compatibility Issues: "This document discusses how to troubleshoot these issues:
Autonegotiation
Physical Connectivity
Port Errors (Data Link Errors)
Continuous Link Up/Down Situations
Gigabit Port Configuration
Common Catalyst Switch Software Issues
Common NIC Issues and Resolutions"

Easy-VC107 Packet Master
Interesting "appliance" hardware that says it will improve video conference traffic (via QOS) over whatever link is between them. Internet, firewalls, NAT.

$1500 each

Windows::Registry::Outlook::Clearing MRU Open other users

XCLN: How to Clear the Open Other Users Folder Most Recently Used List: "XCLN: How to Clear the Open Other Users Folder Most Recently Used List"
The MRU list is saved in the registry. You may want to clear the MRU list (if someone in the list is no longer with your company, for example).

To clear the MRU list: 1. Quit Outlook.
2. On the Start menu, click Run.
3. In the Run dialog box, type regedit, and then click OK.
4. Locate the appropriate registry key for your version of Microsoft Windows:Microsoft Windows NT or Microsoft Windows 2000:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WIndowsNT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\user_profile\ 0a0d020000000000c000000000000046\101e0384

Microsoft Windows 95:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\user_profile\ 0a0d020000000000c000000000000046\101e0384

Microsoft Windows 98 or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me):
\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Messaging SubSystem\Profiles\user_profile\0a0d020000000000c000000000000046\101e0384

5. Click the 101e0384 key in the right pane of Registry Editor.
6. On the Registry menu, click Export Registry File.
7. Save this file in the My Documents folder, and name the file MRURegKey.
8. After you export the file, right-click the 101e0384 key, and then click Delete.
9. Quit Registry Editor.
10. Start Outlook. The MRU list should be cleared.
NOTE: In Windows 2000, the binary value found was 101e0390 instead of 101e0384.

Networking::Telecom Closet Design

Build At least One Closet Per Floor
The communications industry has established infrastructure standards that have served to foster the idea of interoperability. One of those standards establishes that the maximum cable distance between a communications closet and the wall outlet in a classroom or office should not exceed 90 meters (295 feet). In the average building this specification establishes that you should build at least one centrally located closet per floor. Larger building will require more than one closet per floor to stay within the 90-meter cable length limitation. Installing cables that exceed the 90-meter limitation will generally result in a communications network that never performs satisfactorily.

Create a Safe Working Environment
The telecommunications worker needs to be able to stand about arms length or two feet away from the equipment he is working on. This reduces the feeling of claustrophobia, and provides adequate room for stress-reduced movement. You should also consider the affect of the working space on the employee if he is standing on a ladder in the closet or squatting down low to work on equipment at the bottom of a wall or rack. In both of these cases the employee needs an additional two feet of space in front of the equipment to insure free movement. There should also be room on both sides of the equipment for several people to assist in lifting the equipment during installation or removal. These conditions exist for both the front and back of the equipment that is located in a communications rack. A good working environment for a telecommunications closets includes four feet of clear space extending out from the front of the equipment mounted on a wall and four feet out from the front and back of equipment mounted in a rack with two feet of clearance on each side.

Provide Enough Space for Today's Technology as well as the Next Generation of Technology
Your electronics and cabling infrastructure can be bolted to the wall or installed in equipment racks. Equipment racks are about 24 inches wide and up to 7 feet high. The equipment rack, when installed properly, provides the best environment for your equipment and cable infrastructure cross-connects. The average closet will require one rack for electronics and one rack for cabling infrastructure cross-connects. If your initial design fills more than half of either rack then plan for a third or fourth rack. This extra space will be used for any future expansion and will allow new technologies to be deployed without disturbing the legacy facilities. Over the past twenty years of computer networking we have seen four changes in the dominant cabling infrastructure and many more changes in niche specific cabling systems. This means that about every three to five years your technicians are making significant changes in the communications closets. If you don't allow for the installation of new technology then you are forced to remove the old technology before installing the new. This usually results in several weeks or months of disrupted service. If the closet were large enough then the new technology could be installed without interrupting service. After the new service was tested and all users move to it then the old service could be removed in preparation for the next change. You should design for twice as much equipment and cable infrastructure space as you initially need.

Cable Management
Cable management means providing an ordered space for the interconnecting cables between the electronic devices. Without this space the cables hang in front of the electronics and severely impede the repair process. You should plan for an additional six to eight inches of space to each side of the rack for cable management.

Hallway Access
We have grown dependant on the telecommunication infrastructure. When our phone fails or the computer can't get to the network we expect an immediate repair. You do not want to have your technician waiting for a meeting to finish or a class to be over before they can enter the communications closet. For this reason the closet should be accessible from a major hallway. The closet should be clearly marked "Telecommunications Closet" and have unrestricted technician access. The closet should also be secured by a restricted access key system to reduce the chances of malicious "denial of service" attacks and to discourage building occupants from storing items in the closets.

Minimum Telecommunications Closet Size
From the above requirements there are two possible minimum configurations for the telecommunications closet. The first design is a 10' x 10' room with one door onto a major hallway. This design is preferred in areas supporting student classrooms. The second design is a 5' x 10' room with two sets of double doors on the 10' wall of a major hallway (the doors must swing into the hallway). The second design uses the hallway as temporary space during times of maintenance and is most practical in low traffic hallways such as office areas.

Other Considerations for Closet Design
Include space for an uninterruptible power supply in each closet. There should be a minimum of two electrical circuits in each closet. Design for good even lighting throughout the entire closet space both high and low. And finally provide for enough cooling capacity for the electronics in the room.

From: Overview of the best practices for telecommunications closet design, http://net-services.ufl.edu/infrastructure/closetdesign.html

Flexiduct - Wire Management System, Wire loom, cable and wire management: GFCI extension

AV::Video Signal Standards

http://www.datapro.net/videodoc.html

Windows XP::Client::Terminate Process

FROM TechTarget:
How to avoid 'end process' messages

When an application stops responding with the "not responding" message, Windows XP pauses for a short while before prompting a user to shut down the application. Choosing to end the process in Task Manager prompts the user with even more messages.

A simple registry hack allows XP to kill a hung process automatically, eliminating this problem altogether.

Step 1:
To make the change only for you:
Open REGEDIT and browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER
To make the change for all users:
Open REGEDIT and browse to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT


Step 2:
Open the Control Panel key
Open the Desktop key


Step 3:
In the right pane, select the AutoEndTasks value
Change the value to 1 to automatically end hung applications
A value of 0 is the default and prompts the user for the next step


Step 4:
Reboot the system for the setting to take effect.
Instead of rebooting, kill the explorer.exe process in Task Manager, then click File on the menu and select New Task (run). Enter explorer.exe in the dialog box and press Enter. This will force Windows to stop and, upon restarting, reread the registry.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Scott Simon is a senior network services administrator at Resurrection Health Care in Chicago. You can contact him at ssimon@reshealthcare.org.

Networking::Wireless::Wireless Bridge

Don't run cables.
Instead, use a wireless bridge to connect an ethernet device to the wireless LAN or to connect two wired segments together.
One example is: Linksys WET54G
List price: $264
Checked on Amazon and found some $129 (new.)

This thing doesn't require drivers/etc since it's just an ethernet switch you connect your NIC card to.

Or maybe you want to switch to VOIP for home phone service. Your telco termination point is problably not near your LAN cabling (if you even have it) that goes to your cable or DSL internet service. Connect your VOIP adapter between a wireless bridge and the RJ11 jack that goes into your house (where you unplugged your wired telco.)

Networking::Cisco 6500 series switch architecture

Interesting article:
http://www.scd.ucar.edu/nets/devices/eswitches/6500-backplane.html