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Domain Controller Ports
Recently I was asked by a client to produce a list of firewall ports that are used by Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), specifically those for domain controllers. This is what I came up with: TCP and UDP 389 Directory, Replication, User and Computer Authentication, Group Policy, Trusts LDAP TCP 636 Directory, Replication, User…
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Rosh Hashanah 5779
Dear friends, family, and readers, Sunday evening we will be celebrating the Jewish New Year – the year 5779. Rose Hashana is a time of reflection. We are meant to ask forgiveness of those we have wronged, and forgive those who have sought our forgiveness. When these traditions were introduced, probably until the mid-nineteenth century,…
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IPv6: Be gone!
Let me start this piece by stating that I am not advocating that we all ignore IPv6. There are many reasons to use it, and there is nothing wrong with it. Sure, it is more complicated than we may like… but then again, so was IPv4 when we were first introduced to it. But alas,…
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A PowerShell Gotcha
I was bulk-creating users for a test environment today, and in doing so, I borrowed a script from an article online, which set the password for all users to ‘Pa$$word’ I usually use a variation on the same for test environments, but I opted to leave this one as it was. The script worked. A…
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Server 2016 Versions & Builds
When Microsoft introduced the Operating System as a Service with Windows 10, a lot of people got started getting confused because of the different version numbers and build numbers, all the while Microsoft was telling us it was really the same operating system. Okay, I think we have it clear now… three years later. So…
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April Updates Bring May Frustrates
Okay, I know the grammar in my title is terrible, but I know so many people (including myself) who have had a number of frustrating issues that arose from Microsoft’s April patch cycle. I will not go into all of them, but one in particular has been annoying me of late. Okay… but this is…
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Deleting User Profiles
“How do I delete old users from a Windows 10 computer? I log in as an administrator, navigate to c:\Users\, and delete their tree.” NO! In fact, HELL NO! There are several reasons why you might want to delete a user profile from a computer. ranging from termination of employment to reallocation of systems to……
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Stored Passwords–Beware, and know.
How many passwords do you have? How many of them are unique? How many of them would cause you, should they fall into the wrong hands, grief, hardship, financial loss? Now what would you say if I told you that anyone with a very little bit of knowledge could access all of those passwords, and…
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Recovery Image Oopsie…
In a recent article I told you all how I had to recover my Surface Pro, and downloaded a Recovery Image from Microsoft in order to do so (See Surface Woes). As I went through the process of finding that image download, I could not help thinking that so much of the process seemed… outdated. …
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Delegating Control in Active Directory
I have been saying for years that a good IT department in a secure, well-managed infrastructure will give their end users the tools they need to do their job… and nothing more. If that is true for end users, shouldn’t it also be true for the IT department themselves? It is frustrating to see the…
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Surface Woes
Earlier this year I opened a ticket with Microsoft to replace my Surface Pro 4 under warranty. There was an intermittent problem, and I was hoping to be able to get it fixed. Unfortunately the problem went away, and I continued to use my device as normal. This week I turned on the device, and…
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Management Packs: Keep Up!
Updating your SCOM Management Packs should be done from time to time… schedule it!
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A BossDock PHEW! Moment…
I got to my office this morning and realized that my screens were unresponsive, as were my external keyboard and mouse. Assuming the issue was with my external docking station, I disconnected it from my laptop and then reconnected it; I unplugged it from the power source, waited a few seconds, then plugged it in…
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Golden Exam?
I have a spreadsheet that I keep in my OneDrive that tracks the certification exams I have taken. Over the years (starting in December, 2011) I have written a great many of them, Mostly for Microsoft but also a few VMware exams sprinkled in there. Much has changed since I wrote my first exam (which,…
The World According to Mitch
The day to day ramblings of an IT Professional (and so much more…)
The World According to Mitch 