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More About Deny and Allow
In Letters to the Editor: "Clarifying Deny and Allow" (December 2002, http://www.winnetmag.com, InstantDoc ID 27209), Mark Burnett concurs that you need to have Windows 2000 Server to view which username is running which process. But you can use the Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Resource Kit's Pulist command to show the username for each process identifier (PID) running on a computer. Figure 1 shows an example of the output.
I hope nobody rushed out to buy Win2K just to view usernames and processes!
—Paul Gater
p.gater@btinternet.com
Clear and to the Point
Douglas Toombs's "Use a VPN for Wireless Security" (December 2002, http://www.winnetmag.com, InstantDoc ID 27095) was a great article. His explanations made sense and were clear and to the point. (He should write for Microsoft.) Keep up the great work!
—Ken Levins
kalevins@optonline.net
Volume Manager Supports Dynamic Disks
Storage Admin: "Choosing Basic vs. Dynamic Disk Storage for Windows Servers" (December 2002, http://www.winnetmag.com, InstantDoc ID 27085) has several errors. The correct VERITAS Software product name is VERITAS Volume Manager for Windows, not LDM Pro. VERITAS Volume Manager is available for all the major OSs and is the worldwide market leader in storage virtualization with a 79.9 percent market share, according to Gartner. VERITAS Volume Manager's software RAID capabilities are a great choice for Windows Server customers and complement hardware RAID for additional availability and performance.
The most misleading statements in this article concern the use of dynamic disks with Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS). Although it is true that the Logical Disk Manager included with the Windows 2000 OS doesn't support the use of dynamic disks with MSCS, the addition of VERITAS Volume Manager for Windows fully supports the use of dynamic disks with MSCS.
The Microsoft article "Dynamic Disk Configuration Unavailable for Server Cluster Disk Resources" (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=237853) clearly states that if customers want to use dynamic disks with MSCS, then the VERITAS Volume Manager for Windows add-on adds support for dynamic disks to a MSCS server cluster.
—Michael Jones
Senior Product Manager, Windows Foundations and Editions
VERITAS Software
michael.jones@veritas.com
Thank you for your feedback about the article. Although I do understand and respect your points, I didn't intend to provide details about third-party vendor products. The article was a look at the native capabilities of the Windows OS. My statements are accurate for a native Windows scenario.
—Jerry Cochran
Allowing Anonymous Access
John Green's "The Computer Browser Service" (June 2002, http://www.winnetmag.com, InstantDoc ID 24879) was a great article—the best I have read yet about this topic. But every article I've read about the browser service fails to mention that in order for the exchange of lists to take place from the master browsers to the domain master browser, you must allow Anonymous access to the IPC$ share.
If you restrict Anonymous access by clicking Administrative Tools, Local Security Policy, Local Policies, Security Options and setting Additional restrictions for anonymous connections to No access without explicit anonymous permissions, the transfer of the lists fails.
Some Microsoft security articles recommend restricting Anonymous access, although others say that you shouldn't do this in mixed-mode environments. We chased this problem for a while before we realized why machines on some network segments weren't showing up in the domain master browser's list.
—Bruce E. Larson
blarson@fastenal.com
You present some good information. The effect of nonstandard security settings on the browser service is a topic I hadn't thought to include.
—John Green
Resolving Network Settings
I read Letters to the Editor: "Thanks for the Nuts and Bolts" (November 2002, http://www.winnetmag.com, InstantDoc ID 26873), and I recognize reader Edward Cheadle's pain in setting up disaster recovery. I experienced the same problem of losing network settings during my preparation testing for my company's disaster-recovery test. However, my problem occurred when I was restoring to a system with identical hardware. The problem occurred primarily on a Dell PowerEdge 4400, but not on our PowerEdge 4300, 6400, 2500, or 2550 machines. (We have the luxury of being an all-Dell shop.)
I didn't get any help from Microsoft, but a Dell technician knew of the problem, had a theory about the reason, and had a solution that fixes the problem of losing network settings. His theory was that the Media Access Control (MAC) addresses of the NIC cards, or pointers to the addresses, are somewhere in the registry. When you're restoring to a different box, regardless of the fact that the hardware and NIC card are identical, the system still gets confused because the NIC card in the new box has a different MAC address.
You can permanently fix the problem by removing Client for Microsoft Networks, File and Print Services, and the TCP/IP protocol. Then, reboot, add the services again, and configure the card. I have made this procedure part of my disaster-recovery practices for these servers, and it works like a charm every time.
One other note: Sometimes we had to completely uninstall the NIC. But to uninstall the card, the system required the driver to be updated first. Then, we had to uninstall and reinstall the card after reboot. All in all, it's a huge pain. Here's a summary of the steps:
- Update the driver on the NIC .
- Uninstall the NIC (you might need to reboot before you uninstall).
- Reboot after you uninstall the NIC.
- Install the NIC from a disk or CD-ROM by using the Control Panel Add/Remove applet (don't let the system scan for new hardware).
- Delete Client for Microsoft Networks, File and Print Services, and the TCP/IP protocol. (Sometimes you can see these after you update the driver. Most often, you need to uninstall and reinstall the NIC first.)
- Reboot again, then add the services again.
- Configure the NIC.
I don't have any experience restoring to other vendor hardware, but I hope this helps users with Dell servers.
—Rebecca Berg
bergb@fcsamerica.com
What About U.S. Robotics?
I thoroughly enjoyed Ed Roth's "Wireless Home Networking" (October 2002, http://www.winnetmag.com, InstantDoc ID 26374), which was extremely timely for our small consulting company. We're moving our office and plan to install a wireless network. After some research, I chose U.S. Robotics' new 22Mbps Wireless Cable/DSL Router and accompanying PCI and PC Card wireless cards.
I chose this solution because the security seemed as good as, if not better than, other options and because the U.S. Robotics router doubles the bandwidth of a standard 802.11b product. But because the author didn't review this product in his article, I wonder whether there might be a problem with this solution.
—Steve Saltzberg
saltzberg@tltgroup.org
Thanks for the feedback. I haven't checked out U.S. Robotics' wireless solutions yet. Many wireless network vendors are available, so we had to establish some criteria for the products we chose to review. For this article, we selected only 802.11b products that claimed to provide hardware to support a wide range of mobile devices, as outlined in the article. I don't have experience with the U.S. Robotics product, but I can say that you've taken a good step by selecting a vendor with a proven track record in telecommunications. The backward 802.11b compatibility and diversity antennae are also beneficial features. I'd like to hear from you about your experiences in implementing this solution.
—Ed Roth
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