Author Archives: The Amixa Web Guru

Server name does not show up under Network

Random Bits, Windows 7 tips, Windows Server

I recently came across this problem where one of our servers would not show up in the “browse list” under the “Network” icon in Windows 7.  I also checked this same issue from other computers Network Neighborhoods and verified it was just this one server “webserver6” which was not showing up.  We are in a standard Windows AD (Active Directory) network here with a DHCP and DNS servers and two domain controllers.  I checked all the settings on those boxes and they all looked fine, so I suspected the issue was solely with that one particular server.

I examined the server (a standard Windows 2008 server box), and all the settings looked fine.  Static IP (yes), correct DNS servers (yes), enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP (yes), so the problem must be somewhere else.

I then checked the services and found that the COMPUTER BROWSER service was disabled.  I set it to automatic and started the service.

Since this particular server is a virutal server under the latest version of Hyper-V.  I shut down the server and checked the settings in the Hyper-V manager.  I noticed that this particular server was set to a “DYNAMIC MAC” address.   I switched that to STATIC.

Rebooted my workstation and “webserver6”.  Wow!  The server now shows up under the Network list.

Here are the steps again in a more formal list:

  1. Check to make sure the server has a static IP
  2. Check to make sure the server is using the correct DNS server (probably your AD domain server)
  3. Make sure NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled
  4. Make sure the Computer Browser service is started and set to Automatic
  5. HYPER-V machines:  Check to make sure the network adapter that the server is using is set to a STATIC MAC address.  (Not sure if this one makes any difference, but that type of a server shouldn’t be using a dynamic MAC address anyways).
  6. Reboot the server in question and your local workstation
  7. Server should show up if all the above is OK.

ADDENDUM 12/6/2010:

Another thing to check is your Windows Firewall settings. I had another server that would not show up on the Network list until I turned off the Windows Firewall.  That wasn’t a problem for us because we have a separate firewall that protects our systems.  But you need to use your own judgement and take that action on your own choice.  We aren’t responsible for your systems so I would presume that you know what you are doing and the risks of disabling Windows Firewall.

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Windows 7 to Windows XP “Access is denied” home office LAN networking issues

Random Bits, Windows 7 tips

Are you having problems getting your home office LAN, with varying computers between Windows 7 and Windows XP to properly share files?

Here are a few quick tips & tricks to solve your issues (these are at a high level, so if you don’t understand these, ask a friend to assist you). These tips presume you are on a HOME or SMALL OFFICE LAN setup. DO NOT DO THESE if your machines are joined into a Windows domain.

  1. on the Windows 7 machine(s) disable homegroups
  2. on the Windows 7 machine(s), set a workgroup name, like your last name, for example “JOHNSON” (omit the quotes of course)
  3. on the Windows XP machine(s), set the SAME workgroup name as above
  4. Make sure each machine has a friendly computer name with no punctuation. Names like FRANK, workstation1, mypc, are good. Names like Ted’s Computer, My Windows 7 machine, etc. are bad and wont’ work. If necessary, update each computer’s network name to one without any spaces or punctuation like the example just listed. All of these network changes (WORKGROUP name change and computer name change may require reboots to each PC).
  5. on both machines, create a local user(s) with the same username and password. PASSWORD ARE REQUIRED to make this work. Presuming you have one account on the older XP machine that you are currently using, to the USERS area, assign a password, log out and log back into the XP maching using that username and password. On the Windows 7 machine, go to the users area and setup the SAME USER and password.
  6. no other changes including firewall changes should be needed.
  7. if you are the only person (or if there is only one person and one user account) using each computer on the LAN, you can setup “automatic login” on both machines. Google “automatic login” for directions, so that you don’t have to login each time you boot, on each machine.
  8. create a share on each computer. It’s up to you if you want to allow read only or full access to each share. Make sure you “add users” and add all the user(s) that you created above to the permitted user list for the share.

If you’ve done all the above, and have logged out and logged back into the newly password protected accounts, you should be able browse the network, map a network drive, etc.

to do this open up Windows Explorer (the file manager, not Internet Explorer!). Expand out the network, Microsoft Windows network, your network name and you should see your computer names showing up.

Alternatively in the address bar type in

\\mypc1\ and hit enter and see if the SHARES show up. Right click on a share and “MAP NETWORK DRIVE” to allow a drive letter to show up on your Windows Explorer.

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Classic ASP file upload limit of 200kb in IIS 7

IIS Tips & Tricks, Windows Server

During the process of migrating a site to IIS 7 we came across an issue with Classic ASP file uploads throwing 500 errors when larger than 200kb. There is an EASY fix for this.

In IIS 7, click your site and expand it then click the ASP icon.

Expand the Limits Properties icon, and change the value in the “Maximum Requesting Entity Body Limit” to a value larger than 200000 (which is about 200kb). 2000000 would be roughly 2mb, 20000000 would be 20mb.

Click the APPLY button. That’s it!

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New windows in Internet Explorer opening not full screen

Random Bits

Is Internet Explorer driving you nuts by opening up in a smaller window, offset from center on your screen, when it should be opening full-screen?

Yes, this is a really annoying “feature” in IE, and it is not easy to figure out how to get IE to stop opening windows in this small mode. This often happens if you click the “restore down” window and resize the window smaller. From that point on every window you open will be in this new small size.

How to fix this…?

1. Close all existing IE windows
2. Open a single new IE window. Maximize the window and go to any web site like www.google.com
3. Make sure the site loads fully.
4. Click the “Restore down” icon. This is the second button from the right in the top right of the IE window. This will pop the window down to the smaller size.
5. Now grab the window top bar and move it up to top of the screen and grab the bottom right and expand out the window to manually resize it to full size on your monitor.
6. Close this window.
7. Open IE again.
8. RIGHT click any link and “open in new window”. New pages should now open full-size.

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Serve static content from a cookieless domain – Google Page Speed Tip

IIS Tips & Tricks, Windows Server

Ok, so you are using the Google Page Speed plugin for Firefox and you can’t figure out how to clear the “Serve the following static resources from a domain that doesn’t set cookies” issue so that you score better…

First off, since we are using the Windows platform for our hosting, this entire post is making a big assumption you are too. If you are using some other platform or don’t have complete console or remote desktop access to your server, you can read on, but you’ll need to figure out this on your own.

The main thing you need to do is to REGISTER A NEW DOMAIN – or use one you’ve never used before – to specifically use for image and non-html things like JS and CSS.

If the web site is at this-is-my-site.com you should register this-is-my-site-static.com or something similar. YOU MUST register or use a completely different domain name than the base site.

Why is this? Because the way browsers store and cache cookies locally, even if you create a subdomain of your existing site, like static.this-is-my-site.com, the Google Page Speed score will still detect that that domain accepts cookies, and this will not suffice. Pick a domain that you’ve never used or hosted before and this will work fine. Keep in mind your web site visitors are NEVER going to know your images on are a different domain unless they start poking around in your HTML source code anyways.

This specific information will reference IIS 7.0, so if you are on an earlier version feel free to comment and I will see if I can pass along the settings.

So now that you’ve got your new and unused domain name ready to do, setup a new web site instance on your web server, preferably the latest OS such as Windows 2008 server.

DO NOT START the site after you set it up. Bind the site IP to the new domain name.

Bind it to the NO-MANAGED-CODE Application pool.

On this specific site you created, double click HANDLER MAPPINGS. Remove ASP, ASP.NET, PHP or any other script based handlers that appear here. ISAPI ones are OK to keep.

Start the web site instance.

You’ll now need to copy over your images to the new domain (via FTP or however).

Copy the following types of files

  • All images – png, gif, jpg
  • CSS files
  • favicon.ico file
  • JS files

In your HTML on your base site you’ll need to update ALL the image, CSS, JS, Favicon, and JS references to point to the server. You should know how to do this if you can get this far. We are talking HTML 101 here… 🙂

If you’ve done this all properly, re-run the Google Page Speed plugin and it should remove these issues off your task list and change them to “green checks”. If it doesn’t you probably have some script engine enabled on the domain and it is setting a cookie automatically (like ASP.NET). Remove it off that site.

Here at Amixa we use a dedicated server with all the script engines (ASP, ASP.NET, etc.) completely disabled to “serve cookieless domain content”.

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Getting your old Logitech webcam videos working on Windows 7 x64

Random Bits

So, do you have old AVI videos from an old USB or Parallel Logitech web cam? I did, and I happened across them recently – but they won’t play in Windows 7 because the CODEC’s cannot be found.

These videos dated to around 1998 and I wanted to watch them, however I could not figure out how to get the video working under Windows 7 x64 due to the obvious codec issues. After much research, I found out that the correct codecs to play my videos – specifically the Intel Indeo IV41 codec – are indeed present in Windows 7, but they are not hooked into the registry.

(NOTE – ONLY FOR Windows 7 x64). You’ll need a different solution for x86 Windows 7. ** use at your own risk, of course.

Download This File, unzip and DOUBLE CLICK to load the settings into your registry. A reboot may be needed.

When you are done, double click on the AVI files from your old Logitech webcam and the videos should play fine!

I hope this saves some of you time – it took me a few hours to track this down.

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ASPDOTNETSTOREFRONT Excel Import error Ignoring bad/duplicate CategoryRef

ASPDOTNETSTOREFRONT

If you are trying to do a bulk product import into ASPDNSF and come across the following error

Ignoring bad/duplicate CategoryRef, Name=

This is usually solved in one of two ways.

First, you have a malformed XPATH (category) field. The proper syntax is /category name 1/category name 2/subcategory name 1

for example, /Sports/All types of balls/Basketballs

NOTE: You do not need to manually create the categories in the admin interface. If you’ve formed the categories properly as above, the system will auto-create the categories during the import process. This is a real timesaver.

Second, this import error message can also be triggered if the “PRODUCT SKU’s” are duplicated in the import file. Please check your import data carefully to ensure that you don’t have duplicate SKU numbers for the same category (or at all). Good business practices dictate that you have a unique sku for each product.

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First access on ASPDOTNETSTOREFRONT on a W2K8 R2 server…

ASPDOTNETSTOREFRONT, IIS Tips & Tricks

Ok, so you’ve completed your install of ASPDNSF 9.x onto a Windows 2008 R2 server, and when you first try to access the domain, you get this error:

Server Error in ‘/’ Application.

Configuration Error

Description: An error occurred during the processing of a configuration file required to service this request. Please review the specific error details below and modify your configuration file appropriately.

Parser Error Message: Could not load file or assembly ‘System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

Source Error:

 Line 244:        <add assembly=”System.Configuration, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B03F5F7F11D50A3A” />Line 245:        <add assembly=”System.Configuration.Install, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B03F5F7F11D50A3A” />

Line 246:        <add assembly=”System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089″ />

Line 247:        <add assembly=”System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089″ />

Line 248:        <add assembly=”System.Data.DataSetExtensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089″ />

Source File: C:\Websites\www.whatevermysiteisnamed.com\www\web.config    Line: 246

Assembly Load Trace: The following information can be helpful to determine why the assembly ‘System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089’ could not be loaded.

 WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1.

Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging.

To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].

 

Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.4927; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.4927

What to do???

This is an easy fix. 

Go to Start-> Administrative Tools -> Server Manager – > Features ->Add Feature and ADD .NET Framework 3.5.1 Features

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ASPDOTNETSTOREFRONT Proper Permissions under Windows 2008 server

ASPDOTNETSTOREFRONT

I hope this is of help to anyone trying to get a current version (meaning 8.x or 9.x) of ASPDOTNETSTOREFRONT running on a Microsoft Windows 2008 server, or Windows 2008 R2 Server. One issue that we have experienced that is not documented or explained well are the permissions for certain directories you need to configure for the app to properly run. The official documentation from ASPDNSF is here, but I have not had any success in my setups getting the application to function properly. When I use the settings below the app works properly and can accept image uploads from the admin interface, etc.

You need to grant the following permissions to the directories below:

AddIns
Images
web.config (file in root directory)

{servername}\IIS_IUSRS (Read, Write, and Modify access)

so if your server box name is webserver1, you would grant webserver1\IIS_IUSRS the Read, Write, and Modify access permissions.

The official documentation from ASPDNSF specifies “Network Service” instead of IIS_IUSRS, but I have never been able to get the app to work properly using that permission.  It does seem to work properly with the permission above.

DISCLAIMER: Please do these AT YOUR OWN RISK. We accept NO responsiblity for the integrity of your server. I am just relaying my experiences with the installation and use process of this ASPDNSF application.

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Exporting IIS 7 web site settings…

IIS Tips & Tricks

Well, now that Microsoft is shipping Windows 2008 Server R2, we need to know how to (easily) migrate a site from one W2K8R2 machine to another, right?  Microsoft didn’t exactly make this an easy process because there is no built-in method in the IIS 7.0 GUI to do the site export.  So to do the export (and import on another IIS 7 box), you need to drop to a command line and run the following commands:

EXPORT site from IIS 7 (Windows 2008 R2 server)

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\AppCmd.exe LIST SITE "www.yoursitenamehere.com" /config /XML > D:\mysitesconfiguration.xml

IMPORT site into IIS 7.0 (after you have created the above export XML file…)

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\AppCmd.exe ADD SITE /IN < D:\mysitesconfiguration.xml

The last step is to create a new application pool and assign this IMPORTED site to the new application pool.

NOTES:  It is very important that you run this from a command prompt, not the “start bar box” on the Start Menu in Windows 2008 R2 Server.  Instead run the command prompt as Administrator and do this command by keying it in, or create a batch file and execute it as the administrator on that machine.

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