Business cannot stop just because you leave the office. Mobile connectivity keeps you in touch with the office and your clients, wherever you are in the world, day or night. Whatever your requirement, we can provide the right solution.

For further information: http://www.kenmal.co.uk/mobileconnectivity.html or call us on 01279 329819

You can never have enough screen space. Instead of buying a larger computer monitor, you can buy an inexpensive second monitor or make use of a spare one and connect it to your computer (if you're using Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP)—instantly doubling your desktop space.

See the following Microsoft article http://www.microsoft.com/athome/organization/twomonitors.aspx or contact us via http://www,kenmal.co.uk

 

All companies rely heavily on the Internet these days. Email has become critical to normal business transactions and has all but replaced the fax. Speed and reliability of your internet connection is vital to keep you communicating with the outside world. Customers are no longer prepared to wait days for a letter to arrive with a quote; they expect an email within minutes of requesting the information from you. If your Internet connection fails, within minutes you could be losing business.

For more information see: http://www.kenmal.co.uk/internetconnectivity.html

 

Network Security encompasses a magnitude of things, ranging from virus attacks from the Internet to staff attempting to access privileged information. Security of your information is also paramount as is the ability to retrieve it in a disaster recovery scenario. What would you do if someone broke into your offices and stole your equipment, including your data?

For more information: http://www.kenmal.co.uk/networksecurity.html

 

How do you know if your server, which holds all of your company information, is running smoothly or is about to fail? Proactive Server Monitoring reports back to Kenmal Business Systems as often as you require – typically every 15 minutes – to ensure that issues can be detected quickly and dealt with long before you have a catastrophic failure and your business grinds to a halt.

For more information: http://www.kenmal.co.uk/proactivemonitoring.html

 

All companies rely on their computer systems in order to conduct their day to day business. Getting the right system at the right price is critical to ensure that your business runs smoothly. You need hardware and software to provide the right solution, for you and your business.

for further information: http://www.kenmal.co.uk/networkdesign.html

 

Ever wonder how to clean out your computer? Many people do, because it’s not unusual to have your PC’s hard disk filled with games and other programs you no longer need. In fact, some technology analysts believe that we use less than 10 percent of the programs installed on our computers. The following instructions describe how to safely—and easily—uninstall old or unused programs and remove files from your Windows-based computer.

See the following Microsoft article for full details, or if you need assistance, contact us at www.kenmal.co.uk and will be happy to help.

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/setup/cleansweep.aspx

 

Jumplists appear in the Start Menu. Some Start Menu items have a small arrow to their right. Clicking this will bring out a list of options or recent files / disk locations. This can simplify access to common files and features within programs.

Especially useful if you are running Windows 7 on a laptop, the power options have been simplified and rationalised. There are now two standard power plans for Windows, Balanced and Power Saver.

Power options are accessed via the Control Panel.

Both plans can be modified by clicking the Change Plan Settings link to their right. In the left hand pane of this window is a link to create your own power plan. This includes, as with customising the others, choosing when to turn off the display and when the computer sleeps.

Also in this pane is an option to choose what the power buttons do. Here you can redefine the actions of the power and sleep buttons, and change whether Windows takes you to the log-in screen or straight to the desktop when it resumes from sleep or hibernation. Clicking on Choose when to turn off the display or Change when the computer sleeps and then, in  when the display changes, clicking Choose advanced power settings will open a window where you have control over every  aspect of the power management in Windows.

This is an incredibly powerful feature and can be used to great effect to minimise power consumption, especially on a laptop. I would recommend this feature is used by experienced users only.

For help with changing any of these settings, contact us via www.kenmal.co.uk or call 01279 32989 and we will be happy to help.

By default all Explorer windows will always open at the same size, but this size may not suit you. The good news is that this is easily changed. You can resize the window by dragging and dropping it from a corner. When you have it the size you want hold down the ctrl key while closing it. The next time you open that windows it will be the size you want.

From January, Internet Explorer (IE) users will be automatically updated to the latest version of the browser.

Microsoft said it is starting the project to update millions of machines to improve security online.

Future updates to the browser would be applied without a user's knowledge to help beat scammers catching people out those who didn't have the latest security updates applied.

Those who did not want their browser updated could opt out or uninstall the software, said Microsoft.

The rollout of this service will help eliminate Internet Explorer 6 which Microsoft has been trying to get users to upgrade from for the last several years because of it's security vulnerabilities.

Download the latest version of Internet Explorer for your Windows PC here.

If you need any help visit our website at www.kenmal.co.uk

 

Libraries are a quick and easy way to access your data.

You can add as many drives and folders to libraries as you like, though you cannot add removable storage such as USB pen drives. Adding and removing folder locations within a Library is easy, just click the Includes: 1 location (the number may be different) to bring up a wizard that will easily help you add and remove folder locations.

READYBOOST

If you have a spare USB pen drive, you can use this to speed up your system. Plug the drive in and when the autoplay window appears select Speed up my system to use the pen drive as additional memory. It does this by using space on the pen drive to cache programs for faster loading.

Note: if you are not offered the option to speed up you system, your USB drive is not compatible.

For businesses with up to 100 users, a support contract will be beneficial. Companies with these numbers of computers will probably find that rarely a day goes by without some form of computer issue arising. More often than not users will require a configuration change to their computer or application, or simply assistance in carrying out an unfamiliar task.

Clients that invest in Kenmal Business Systems support contracts enjoy a faster response time than non-contract clients, and rest assured that whatever the computer problem they can get it resolved.

We are able to tailor your support contract to suit your requirements. Some clients use us to provide a full-time onsite support presence, some of our clients use us to provide on-call support to cover their own IT managers holidays or sickness.

See our range of services at www.kenmal.co.uk, or contact us at www.kenmal.co.uk/contactus.html or call 01279 329819.

By default Windows 7 will show you a theme based on your Geographic location or
country however all the world‘s editions of Windows 7 come on the same DVD so
you can easily unlock the additional countries.

Open the drive that Windows 7 is installed on from Within Computer and navigate
to the following folder Windows > Winsxs. Once there in the search box in the top
right of that window search for *.theme. This will bring up a list ofall the
available themes, many of which will already be installed. However there will be other geographical
theme packs here that you can install simply by double clicking them.

The longer a person serves as a network admin, the more tips and tricks they are likely to pick up along the way. Some could be shortcuts, others might seem like magic, but all are intended to save you time and help you solve problems. Assume that all of these Windows commands should be run from an administrative command prompt if you are using Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 2008.
 
Active Directory
 
1. To quickly list all the groups in your domain, with members, run this command:
 
dsquery group -limit 0 | dsget group -members –expand
 
2. To find all users whose accounts are set to have a non-expiring password, run this command:
 
dsquery * domainroot -filter “(&(objectcategory=person)(objectclass=user)(lockoutTime=*))” -limit 0
 
3. To list all the FSMO role holders in your forest, run this command:
 
netdom query fsmo
 
4. To refresh group policy settings, run this command:
 
gpupdate
 
5. To check Active Directory replication on a domain controller, run this command:
 
repadmin /replsummary
 
6. To force replication from a domain controller without having to go through to Active
 
Directory Sites and Services, run this command:
 
repadmin /syncall
 
7. To see what server authenticated you (or if you logged on with cached credentials) you can run either of these commands:
 
set l
 
echo %logonserver%
 
8. To see what account you are logged on as, run this command:
 
whoami
 
9. To see what security groups you belong to, run this command:
 
whoami /groups
 
10. To see the domain account policy (password requirements, lockout thresholds, etc) run this command:
 
net accounts
 
Windows Networking
 
11. To quickly reset your NIC back to DHCP with no manual settings, run this command:
 
netsh int ip reset all
 
12. To quickly generate a text summary of your system, run this command:
 
systeminfo | more
 
13. To see all network connections your client has open, run this command:
 
net use
 
14. To see your routing table, run either of these commands:
 
route print
 
netstat -r
 
15. Need to run a trace, but don’t have Netmon or Wireshark, and aren’t allowed to install either one? Run this command:
 
netsh trace start capture=yes tracefile=c:capture.etl
 
netsh trace stop
 
16. To quickly open a port on the firewall, run this command, changing the name, protocol, and port to suit. This example opens syslog:
 
netsh firewall set portopening udp 161 syslog enable all
 
17. To add an entry to your routing table that will be permanent, run the route add command with the –p option. Omitting that, the entry will be lost at next reboot:
 
route add 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 172.16.250.5 –p
 
18. Here’s a simple way to see all open network connections, refreshing every second:
 
netstat –ano 1
 
19. You can add a | findstr value to watch for only a specific connection, like a client ip.addr or port:
 
netstat –ano | findstr 216.134.217.20
 
20. You can use the shutdown to shutdown or reboot a machine, including your own, in a simple scheduled task like this:
 
shutdown –r –t 0 –m \localhost
 
21. To make planned DNS changes go faster, reduce the TTL on the DNS records you plan on changing to 30 seconds the day before changes are to be made. You can set the TTL back to normal after you confirm the changes have been successful.
 
22. Set a short lease on DHCP scopes that service laptops, and set Microsoft Option 002 to release a DHCP leas on shutdown. This helps to ensure your scope is not exhausted and that machines can easily get on another network when the move to a new site.
 
Windows 7
 
23. Want to enable the local administrator account on Windows 7? Run this command from an administrative command prompt. It will prompt you to set a password:
 
net user administrator * /active:yes
 
24. You can do the same thing during install by pressing SHIFT-F10 at the screen where you set your initial user password.
 
Windows 7 supports several useful new keyboard shortcuts:
 
25. Windows Key+G
 
Display gadgets in front of other windows.
 
26. Windows Key++ (plus key)
 
Zoom in, where appropriate.
 
27. Windows Key+- (minus key)
 
Zoom out, where appropriate.
 
28. Windows Key+Up Arrow
 
Maximize the current window.
 
29. Windows Key+Down Arrow
 
Minimize the current window.
 
30. Windows Key+Left Arrow
 
Snap to the left hand side of the screen
 
31. Windows Key+Right Arrow
 
Snap to the right hand side of the screen.
 
32. To quickly launch an application as an administrator (without the right-click, run as administrator), type the name in the Search programs and files field, and then press Ctrl-Shift-Enter.
 
Here are some tips that can save you from buying commercial software:
 
33. Need to make a quick screencast to show someone how to do something? The Problem Steps Recorder can create an MHTML file that shows what you have done by creating a screen capture each time you take an action. Click the Start button and type ‘psr’ to open the Problem Steps Recorder.
 
34. Need to burn a disc? The isoburn.exe can burn ISO and IMG files. You can right click a file and select burn, or launch it from the command line.
 
35. Windows 7 includes a screen scraping tool called the Snipping Tool. I have tons of users request a license for SnagIt, only to find this free tool (it’s under Accessories) does what they need.
 
36. You can download this bootable security scanner from Microsoft that will run off a USB key, which is very useful if you suspect a machine has a virus.
 
37. A great way to save all your command line tools and make them available across all your computers is to install Dropbox, create a folder to save all your scripts and tools, and add that folder to your path. That way, they can be called from the command line or any other scripts, and if you update a script, it will carry across to any other machine you have.
 
Windows 2008
 
38. You can free up disk space on your servers by disabling hibernate. Windows 2008 will create a hiberfil.sys equal to the amount of RAM. This is very useful with VMs that have lots of RAM but smaller C: drives. To disable hibernation, and reclaim that space, run this command:
 
powercfg -h off
 
39. You can get to the complete collection of Sysinternals tools online. You can even invoke them from the run command. Use the url: http://live.sysinternals.com or the UNC path: \live.sysinternals.comtools.
 
40. Speaking of the Sysinternals tools, almost any command line in this article can be run remotely on another machine (as long as you have administrative rights) using the psexec command included in the Sysinternals tools.
 
41. You can kill RDP sessions at the command line when you find that all the RDP sessions to a server are tied up.
 
regsvr32 query.dll [enter] You only have to do this the first time.
 
query session /server:servername [enter]
 
reset session # /server:servername [enter]
 
42. You can create a list of files and display the last time they were accessed, which is very useful when a network drive is low on space and users swear they have to have that copy of Office 2003 on the network. My advice? If they haven’t touched it in two years, burn it to DVD or write it to tape and then delete it from disk:
 
dir /t:a /s /od >> list.txt [enter]
 
43. The Microsoft Exchange Err command is one of the best all around troubleshooting tools you will find, as it can decode any hex error code you find as long as the products are installed on the machine. Download it from here.
 
44. You can see all the open files on a system by running this command:
 
openfiles /query
 
45. You can pull all the readable data out of a corrupt file using this command:
 
recover filename.ext
 
46. Need to pause a batch file for a period of time but don’t have the sleep command from the old resource kit handy? Here’s how to build a ten second delay into a script:
 
ping -n 10 127.0.0.1 > NUL 2>&1
 
47. If your Windows website has stopped responding, or is throwing a 500 error, and you are not sure what to do, you can reset IIS without having to reboot the whole server. Run this command:
 
iisreset
 
48. You can use && to string multiple commands together; they will run sequentially.
 
49. If you find yourself restarting services frequently, you can use that && trick to create a batch file called restart.cmd and use it to restart services:
 
net stop %1 && net start %1
 
50. You can download a Windows port of the wget tool from here, and use it to mirror websites using this command:
 
wget -mk http://www.example.com/
 
Linux
 
51. You can list files sorted by size using this command:
 
ls –lSr
 
52. You can view the amount of free disk space in usable format using this command:
 
df –h
 
53. To see how much space /some/dir is consuming:
 
du -sh /some/dir
 
54. List all running processes containing the string stuff:
 
ps aux | grep stuff
 
55. If you have ever run a command but forgot to sudo, you can use this to rerun the command:
 
sudo !!
 
56. If you put a space before a command or response, it will be omitted from the shell history.
 
57. If you really liked a long command that you just ran, and want to save it as a script, use this trick:
 
echo “!!” > script.sh
 
With 57 tips in this bag of tricks, you’re bound to find something useful. Have your own tips to share? Leave us a comment!

Your network environment is one of the keys to the success of your business. Most business people don’t fully believe this, even after long discussions and mounds of evidence to the contrary. As an IT professional focusing on security for the Windows platform, I have the pleasure of working with and for other IT professionals, supporting the day-to-day operations of businesses of various sizes. So, why do businesses still look at safe and secure networks as a "nice to have" rather than a "need to have?"

IT Pros (like Business Pros) always have a plan to improve the network environment. The limitation (for both the IT Pro and the Business Pro) is resources. Resources can be time, money or the availability of skilled labour. As an IT Pro, I focus on specific fundamentals of building, growing, optimizing and securing a network environment.

In the end, Business Pros will likely become more like IT Pros, while IT Pros continue to grow in business acumen. With that in mind, why don’t you give us a try?

Call us on 01279 329819 or contact us vias the website at www.kenmal.co.uk to see how we can you you and your business.

Struggling to think of a gift idea for Christmas? It's a great time to get a new PC. Call us for our recommendations and prices of PC's that would really make anyone's Christmas!

Choosing a new server is a big decision: the right one could help your company grow thanks to better communication, fewer failures and features that make a difference. Buy the wrong one and you could be left cursing your decision for months and even years.

We’re also fully aware that some small businesses have never bought a server before, relying instead on an ad hoc network of PCs – or perhaps a desktop PC loaded with Windows XP that’s trying to fulfil server duties.

For help and advise call us on 01279 329819 or visit our website at www.kenmal.co.uk

 

The value of sharing

Local area networking is quite simply the most significant advance in office communication since the invention of the telephone.

The benefits to be derived from linking together computers are enormous and attractive to office managers and staff alike: increased productivity, greater efficiency, lower capital costs and most important for the individual user, an enhanced quality of working life.

Different networking systems offer different facilities, but in general local area networking means three things: sharing hardware, sharing information and fast communication between users.

Sharing hardware

At one end of the list of advantages implied by local area networking is the sharing of hardware which is expensive and often underexploited. Take a single PC. It comprises a display monitor, a processor, a keyboard and mouse, and data storage in the form of disks. This workstation also requires a printer for printing out hard copies of letters, forms and documents.

The printer is a vital but expensive piece of equipment and most of the time it stands idle.

The PC in the office next door also needs a printer. So does the one down the corridor...  pretty soon you have an awful lot of expensive printer capability that spends most of its time doing nothing.

However, if you link those PC’s together with a length of the right cable, you only need one printer to serve all three. Large numbers of PCs can be networked together in this way, using only the necessary number of printers.

Another expensive feature of the PC which tends to be underutilised is the hard disk drive. The disk within it can hold a prodigious amount of stored data. Here again, PCs networked together can share costly disks, which have more working capacity than the average individual PC requires anyway, to make the operation a lot more economic. This also reduces the risk of data duplication.

 A third item is the Internet connection. Shared by all users on a local area network, one internet connection can really start working for its living, and only when it reaches full capacity does it need to be upgraded or a second installed.

Sharing Information

While networking offers more efficient utilisation of hardware, it implies even greater advantages in the sharing of information.

At its most basic level, this means that ‘fetching the file’ is simply a matter of summoning it to appear on your display from wherever it is stored on the network. Similarly, application programs can be held centrally and accessed directly by any user on the network (although it is important to note that the software manufacturer’s licence conditions in this context).

Better still, multi-user application programs, such as database and accounting systems, allow a number of users to access a file and work on its contents simultaneously. The advantage is that, where several users are entering invoices, for example, the central record is being constantly adjusted to reflect the figures as they are entered. The result of this is that consistently up-to-date records can be maintained.

Some information is not for general sharing, of course, so security can be built into the network system in the form of user passwords. Various levels of access ensure that files classified as private are only accessible to authorised users. Other files may be controlled by a ‘read-only’ protection code which allows specified users to read, but not alter, the information.

Communicating with others

Another significant advantage of networking is the speed and simplicity with which users can communicate with each other. At its simplest level, this can mean office communication by the exchange of short ‘chat’ messages between users.

Longer or more permanent communications are sent by electronic mail. The user writes the message at his or her PC by typing at the keyboard. The system will then circulate the message to any number of people as specified (including users outside of your organisation), prompting the recipient that a communication has arrived. When the message has been read, replied to, printed out, forwarded, or otherwise acted upon, it can be stored or discarded as desired.

Other data can be included with a message. For example, a covering note might be accompanied by a file giving details of the latest sales figures or by a spreadsheet showing the financial forecast.

 

Connections

The hardware

Before PCs can be physically linked by a cable into a network, they must be provided with the means of talking to each other in a common language. The appropriate hardware in the form of an interface card which standardises the way signals are transmitted and received, must be installed in each station. With very few exceptions, all computers now come with such an interface as standard.  This connector on the computer is designed to connect to the network using a ‘Cat5’ cable. Anyone wishing to use a different system will need to fit an appropriate plug-in interface card.

Topology

The shape in which the network cable is laid out is called the topology, and there are three principle topological configurations: a bus, a ring and a star.

In a bus system each PC is connected to a length of cable like leaves attached to a plant stem. Each station is alert to the signals being passed along the cable and latches on to anything it recognises as relevant to itself.  A ring system moves the information round in a circle, passing through each station. With the star configuration individual cables radiate out to workstations from a central point. This is the most common system for SMEs and is the one you are most likely to use.

Media

The term media refers to different kinds of wiring used to connect PCs into networks. Older systems used to use coaxial cable, similar to that used for television aerials. This cabling system was used in the bus topology. The majority use twisted-pair wiring, more like telephone cable. This is often referred to as Cat5 (the standard it adheres to) UTP (unshielded twisted pair) STP (shielded twisted pair) or Ethernet cabling (this term is actually wrong as Ethernet refers to a communication standard).

Access Protocol

Obviously, if every station on the network is allowed to transmit information at will, there are going to be some messy collisions. So the system has to apply a sort of highway code which avoids accidents and yet gives all the stations an equal opportunity to transmit. This code is called the access protocol and different systems set about it in different ways.

One commonly used protocol is called carrier sense multiple access or CSMA for short, usually backed by a collision detection facility (knows as CD). Before sending data, a workstation will listen in to the channel and check that no other station is transmitting. If a collision occurs, the stations transmitting with both stop, wait for a random period of time and then try again.

Another access protocol used mainly by networks with a ring or bus topology, is based on a token being passed around from station to station. The token goes round the system until it arrives at a station with data to transmit. The station catches the token and holds it until its message has been sent and received, then puts the token back into circulation.

Transmission speed

The speed at which the network can circulate information varies from one system to another within a range of 1MBit and 10GBit per second (1 megabit is a million bits and a gigabit is a thousand million bits). In general the faster the system can transmit data the more expensive it is. Quite simply, you pay for performance.